Dive Brief:
- The charitable arm of environmental organization Sierra Club announced Wednesday it is withdrawing funds from BlackRock over the asset manager’s failure to address and prioritize climate risk.
- The Sierra Club Foundation will be moving its funds — a reported $10.5 million figure, according to Reuters — to Nia Impact Capital, a women-led impact investing firm, and Xponance, a Black majority-owned sustainability-focused investment company, according to a release. The organization described both firms as “financially responsible asset managers.”
- The green group said its decision to move away funds from BlackRock comes due to the nation’s largest asset manager refusing to “address the systemic financial implications of the climate crisis in its investment and stewardship decisions.”
Dive Insight:
The Sierra Club Foundation said it had been actively engaging with BlackRock for more than three years over its dissatisfaction with how the asset manager was not meeting the organization’s expectations on prioritizing climate-related risk.
In a statement announcing its retreat from BlackRock, Sierra Club cited the asset manager's reduced support for shareholder proposals linked to environmental and social issues — now at 4.1%, down from the 7% it supported in 2024.
The organization also highlighted BlackRock’s decision to leave the United Nations-backed Net Zero Asset Managers initiative in January. At the time, senior executives at BlackRock said its NZAM membership was creating confusion around the firm’s practices and left the firm subject “to legal inquiries from various public officials.” NZAM announced an operational pause and suspended all activities shortly after the exit.
“Climate risk is financial risk,” Paul Rissman, an emeritus board member of the Sierra Club Foundation, said in the June 25 statement. “BlackRock has refused to fulfill its fiduciary duty to long-term investors and support real-world decarbonization through stronger stewardship practices, which is why it is no longer a responsible manager for the Sierra Club Foundation’s assets.”
BlackRock did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
