As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, has drafted a shareholder proposal about John Deere’s “ambiguous and inconsistent shift in policies and practices” regarding DEI, writing that dismantling key policies exposes the company to “financial, competitive, legal, and reputational risks.”. Read More →
Read MoreESG investors can determine the social responsibility of over 3,000 shared funds. They can also check how their carbon emissions affect society from the As You Sow website. Your fund ratings can be found on a scale of A to F, depending on the screen you choose to perform a financial analysis on. Read More →
Read MoreReveal reporter Jonathan Jones was working on a story about a massive coal plant expansion in Montana when he wondered who was bankrolling the project. It turns out a major shareholder of the energy company driving the project was The Vanguard Group, the investment firm where he happens to have his retirement savings. Read More →
Read MoreDanielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, was summoned before the committee in March along with the shareholder group’s CEO Andy Behar for 15 hours of questioning. Afterward, Fugere said Jordan’s staff couldn’t provide a legislative reason for why they needed such exhaustive information. Read More →
Read MoreIf you want fossil-fuel-free funds, check out this site run by shareholder advocate As You Sow. It also rates funds that own companies that finance and insure the fossil fuel industry. Read More →
Read MoreI stand by my assessment and believe that Friedman, were he alive today, might even agree. Nobel laureate and Columbia economics professor Joseph Stiglitz would also agree, as he explained in a recent Washington Post op-ed, “Time is up for neoliberals.” Read More →
Read More“This is a new chapter in a broader deregulatory story that’s a century old,” said Luke Morgan, an attorney with As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy nonprofit. “The reason that this has moved to focus on litigation is because the political movement failed. There was no popular support for this whatsoever.” Read More →
Read MoreThat’s what happened to our nonprofit, when the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter asking As You Sow and 13 other mainstream investor organizations to turn over all documents related to our work representing shareholders looking to reduce climate risk in their portfolios. Read More →
Read MoreIt appears that the Judiciary Committee is specifically trying to discourage our coordination because they see it as the key to reducing climate risk for the entire global economy. Therefore, I propose that the 14 of us actually do work together, with total transparency, to accomplish the task that the committee has laid before us. Read More →
Read More“Last year As You Sow had 210 engagements and 99 companies agreed to take action, a great many of them on DEI disclosure,” he said, without naming the companies it had targeted. “We escalated 111 by filing shareholder resolutions; 56 agreed to terms and we withdrew. The remainder went to a vote which then led to more engagements and action by the vast majority companies.” Read More →
Read MoreRepublicans are on a “crusade” against responsible investing, says Andrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit group As You Sow that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. His group was subpoenaed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this week as Republicans probe whether investments that take into account environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns violate antitrust laws. Read More →
Read MorePoliticians in Republican-controlled U.S. states have already launched 150 anti-ESG bills in 2024, which has had a chilling effect, according to Andrew Behar, chief executive of activist group As You Sow, which pressures companies, including the big U.S. banks, over ESG issues. Read More →
Read MoreWade into ESG by first collecting the stock or fund symbols for the holdings in your retirement accounts and investment portfolios. Then, recommended Young, run those symbols through the Invest Your Values assessment tool at As You Sow, a nonprofit that provides consumer-friendly snapshots of ESG rankings and data. Read More →
Read MoreAlways spoiling for new ways to kneecap their formidable foe, ESG investing, a group of congressional Republicans this week widened their attack. The GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed documents from a prolific pro-climate investor advocacy group, As You Sow. The advocacy group posted a long, threatening letter it received on Wednesday from committee chair Jim Jordan. Read More →
Read More"If a fund says it will avoid fossil fuel producers, many investors may not be pleased if those stocks show up in the portfolio," says Andrew Montes, director of digital strategies at As You Sow, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy group that grades ESG funds on their sustainable practices. Read More →
Read MoreFor example, proposals that focused on cutting emissions across a company’s supply chain found a warmer reception than those that set specific deadlines for companies to phase out of fossil fuel projects, the report states. (Andrew Behar, CEO of leading shareholder activist group As You Sow, has also acknowledged that “tougher” proposals were a hard sell this year.) Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, chief executive of As You Sow, agrees. Writing in a blog post, he said: “While political efforts to roll back the clock are under way, they will crumble against the wall of economic reality (that) investors and companies deal with every day.” He added that there were already signs that this is happening. Read More →
Read MoreFor instance, companies including Ford (F.N) and eBay (EBAY.O) agreed to report more workforce details such as recruiting and retention rates in deals that led shareholder activist group As You Sow to withdraw resolutions before they were voted, said its CEO Andrew Behar. Read More →
Read MoreWhat is shareholder engagement, and how can it actually influence investments? How does shareholder power differ between Europe and America in terms of shareholder proposals? What are the regulatory variations that contribute to this difference? Listen to the conversation between: Andrew Behar, CEO and founder of As You Sow and Hege Marie Norheim, EVP Corporate Public Affairs and Sustainability, FREYR Read More →
Read MoreThe resolutions were filed by activist shareholder group As You Sow, which the Republicans suggested had targeted Vanguard over its withdrawal. As You Sow President Danielle Fugere said that was not correct as the group had filed similar resolutions last year, before Vanguard's December action. Read More →
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