Responsible investment
Following the adoption of its responsible investment charter, UNIL is continuing to strengthen its responsible investment policy.
UNIL has assets of around CHF 250 million, built up over the years mainly through donations, research fund balances and returns. These assets are managed by the GBUV (Gestion des biens universitaires vaudois), a simple company grouping together UNIL and 19 foundations and associations whose purpose is to jointly manage their assets. Each year, around CHF 3 million is raised from these assets to fund the university's operating budget (which totals more than CHF 600 million).
In order to minimise the environmental and social impact of investing these assets, UNIL has been developing a strategy of responsible investment for several years;responsible investments by mobilising the expertise of the Finance Department of its Faculty of Business and Economics and in collaboration with Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV), which manages the GBUV portfolio.
This collaboration has enabled BCV to deepen its knowledge of how to take account of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and to develop a specific tool for investment professionals. This approach, initially developed for the GBUV, has gradually been extended to the assets of all BCV's institutional clients.
Responsible Investment Charter
The Responsible Investment Charter applies to the funds managed by UNIL. This charter sets out the general principles of UNIL's financial asset management policy, in particular the Gestion des biens universitaires vaudois (GBUV), in a way that takes account of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.