Our Mission
Since 2013, we have sought to use our power as faculty at Harvard University to advocate for a vigorous response to the global climate crisis.
Harvard Faculty for Divestment is a group of Faculty members belonging to several schools of Harvard and representing diverse fields in the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Since 2013, the group has advocated for a vigorous response to the global climate crisis that already affects many individuals and communities (particularly the most vulnerable), and endangers the future of life on earth. While we work in solidarity with the student and alumni groups allied in Divest Harvard, our position as faculty means that a specific responsibility toward our current students and future generations of students animates our activism.
In our original petition, we called on the Harvard President and the Corporation to divest from the fossil fuel industry. This is an important issue but not the only strategy or action we support. After several years of campaigning, in early February 2020 the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Medical School both voted in favor of motions calling for fossil fuel divestment. President Bacow and the Corporation responded on April 21, 2020: “The Corporation has directed the Harvard Management Company to develop a strategy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the portfolio by 2050.” And in September 2021, the University finally announced plans toward divestment.
Since Spring 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying social and economic crises, we recognize that now is as pertinent a time as ever to continue organizing toward an expedient turn away from fossil fuels. Doing so contributes to a broader movement for social justice and sustainability that the pandemic highlighted as necessary for ensuring a safer, healthier, and more just future. If you want to join us, sign onto our email list using the “Join” button, or get in touch with the steering committee by email.
