The Rockefeller fortune may be founded on oil, but is heirs have decided to eradicate the black gold from its investments.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) have released Investing in Our Mission, a case study detailing how its investment returns beat market benchmarks since divesting from fossil fuels five years ago.

Financial data included in the study shows RBF posted an average annual net return of 7.76 per cent over the five-year period that ended 31 December 2019. Over the same period, an index portfolio made up of 70 per cent stocks and 30 per cent bonds—including coal, oil, and gas holdings—returned 6.71 per cent annually.

When the RBF, a philanthropic, announced its decision to divest in September 2014, the move was considered largely symbolic: The family was betting against the very industry that had made its name synonymous with wealth and power. Citing the moral case against fossil fuel investments, the Fund, which pours about $15m each year into climate change solutions, set out also to make a financial case, that fossil fuel holdings would decrease in value as the world shifted away from carbon-intensive energy to mitigate the impacts of global warming.

“When we joined the divestment movement, we were convinced that a more profitable and less risky investment portfolio could be constructed without exposure to fossil fuels,” said Valerie Rockefeller, great-great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller and chair of the RBF board of trustees. “Now we have five years of financial data to back it up.”

The RBF investment portfolio is now 99 per cent fossil fuel free. Coal and tar sands account for less than 0.1 per cent of its $1.1 billion portfolio; oil and gas comprise another 0.9 per cent and falling. Since announcing its commitment to divest, the RBF has also committed 15 per cent of its endowment to market-rate impact investments in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, microfinance, workforce development, and more.

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