Is Carbon Hiding in Your Nest Egg?
Is Carbon Hiding in Your Nest Egg?

That brings us back to the carbon that may be hiding in your mutual fund or 401(k). One of the pioneers in the divest/reinvest movement is the nonprofit foundation As You Sow, which works with shareholders to improve corporate accountability. It has developed a tool that finds the carbon in thousands of the most common mutual funds and retirement plans. It does the detective work instantly and cost-free with up-to-date data.

Using 401(k) retirement plans as an example, As You Sow’s explains “those funds can invest in a wide array of securities, and it’s not always easy for investors to investigate what’s inside the funds they own. You can spend hours poring over mutual fund prospectuses, and still not fully grasp everything your 401(k) is invested in. Your retirement money may be invested in economically and morally risky fossil fuel companies.”

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Invest Your ValuesAs You Sowclimate change, Fossil Free Funds
The carbon bubble: why investors can no longer ignore climate risks
The carbon bubble: why investors can no longer ignore climate risks

“If what you read about stranded assets is true, it’s a potentially serious problem for regular, middle-class people who aren’t necessarily paying attention,” says Cari Rudd, a Washington DC-based communications consultant, who does social media work for Divest-Invest and sits on the board of As You Sow, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy.

For example, As You Sow’s Fossil Free Funds, which uses data from Morningstar, is a free online tool that allows investors to type in the name or ticker of a fund and see what percentage is invested in fossil fuels. Earlier this month, the organization expanded Fossil Free Funds to include a feature that shows each fund’s carbon footprint and which companies are the main contributors. For 401k participants who don’t have direct control of selecting the funds offered in their retirement plan, As You Sow also provides advice on how to speak to their employers about expanding their company’s plan to include low-carbon options.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You Sowclimate change, Fossil Free Funds, Cari Rudd
UK’s dirtiest funds revealed
UK’s dirtiest funds revealed

The ranking of 1,200 UK funds by As You Sow, a non-profit organisation, comes as concerns mount that investors could suffer big losses if companies with large carbon footprints are negatively affected by attempts to tackle climate change.

Two funds from Standard Life Investments, the Scottish asset manager, and a fund from Schroders, the UK’s largest listed asset manager, ranked among the five products with the largest carbon footprint, according to As You Sow.

The As You Sow research covered 8,500 investment products globally. Besides allowing investors to find out if they are exposed to climate change risks, it also revealed huge differences in how exposed the UK’s largest funds are to polluting industries.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You Sowclimate change
Mylan’s Pay for CEO Bresch Grates on Lawmakers, Many Investors
Mylan’s Pay for CEO Bresch Grates on Lawmakers, Many Investors

Shareholders opposing the pay program at Mylan’s June 24 annual meeting included BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investment manager, according to Fund Votes, a company that tracks proxy voting. That’s an unusual move: BlackRock and Vanguard Group Inc., which are among the largest shareholders at most big U.S. companies, vote with boards on executive pay 97 percent of the time, according to As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group.

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CEO PayAs You Sow
Your 401(k) fund could be helping to destroy the world’s precious rainforests
Your 401(k) fund could be helping to destroy the world’s precious rainforests

“We come from the shareholder-advocacy perspective. We saw a need for transparency,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting corporate responsibility. As You Sow partnered with global environmentalist network Friends of the Earth to launch the database, which was inspired by a similar tool, focused on fossil fuels, designed by As You Sow in 2015.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You SowAndrew Behar, climate change
Fiduciary responsibility and climate change
Fiduciary responsibility and climate change

Such a goal is becoming easier than ever to achieve. Fossil-fuel holdings, once a mainstay of pension fund portfolios, have grown less relevant over the past 30 years. A recent report by As You Sow, a San Francisco think tank, explains why (“Unconventional Risks: The Growing Uncertainty of Oil Investments”). The report documents several indicators that point to increasing structural risks that include declining revenues and profits, mounting debt, and falling prices.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You Sowclimate change
Toyota tops list of greenest companies for clean energy revenue
Toyota tops list of greenest companies for clean energy revenue

The Carbon Clean 200, established by non-profit As You Sow and green media researchers Corporate Knights, highlights that companies investing in green energy products and services are outperforming fossil fuel companies by three to one in regards to revenue performance.

As You Sow’s chief executive and co-author of the report Andrew Behar said: “Our intention with The Clean200 is to begin a conversation that defines what companies will be part of the clean energy future. The Clean200 turns the ‘carbon bubble’ inside out. The list is far from perfect, but begins to show how it’s possible to accelerate and capitalise on the greatest energy transition since the industrial revolution.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You SowAndrew Behar, Carbon Clean 200 List
Turning the Carbon Bubble Inside Out
Turning the Carbon Bubble Inside Out

Our global economy is undergoing the "Great Transition" from an energy system based on fossil fuels to one based on clean, renewable energy sources and technologies. So as longtime advocates for a safe, just and sustainable future, we at As You Sow decided to partner with our friends at Corporate Knights and develop the Carbon Clean 200—to start a broad and dynamic conversation about how all investors can create a clean energy economy and how best to recognize companies that are already on this path.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You SowCarbon Clean 200 List
Toyota, Tesla and Vestas ranked among world’s top green companies
Toyota, Tesla and Vestas ranked among world’s top green companies

The rankings are included in a report by non-profit organisation As You Sow and market research firm Corporate Knights, which plan to update the list quarterly to serve as an opposing accompaniment to the ‘Carbon Underground 200’ ranking of fossil fuel companies being targeted for divestment.

“Our intention with the Clean200 is to begin a conversation that defines what companies will be part of the clean energy future,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow and the report’s co-author. “The Clean200 turns the ‘carbon bubble’ inside out. The list is far from perfect, but begins to show how it’s possible to accelerate and capitalize on the greatest energy transition since the industrial revolution.”

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Invest Your ValuesAs You SowCarbon Clean 200 List
Consumer Groups Push KFC to Stop Routine Antibiotic Use in Its Chicken
Consumer Groups Push KFC to Stop Routine Antibiotic Use in Its Chicken

As per federal government guidance, KFC does not allow the use of such antibiotics for growth promotion. Medical experts warn that the routine use of antibiotics to promote growth and prevent illness in healthy farm animals contributes to the rise of drug-resistant “superbug” infections that kill at least 23,000 Americans each year and represent a “catastrophic threat” to global health.

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Environmental HealthAs You SowAntibiotics and Factory Farms
Shareholders press Yum for stricter antibiotics policy
Shareholders press Yum for stricter antibiotics policy

The proposal from shareholder activists As You Sow, of Oakland, California, and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia comes as KFC lags rivals McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N), Chick-fil-A, Subway and Wendy’s Co (WEN.O) in setting policies to curb the routine use of antibiotics in chicken production.

“Yum Brands’ silence in the face of this looming antibiotic resistance crisis is bad for business,” said Austin Wilson, As You Sow’s environmental health program manager.

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Environmental HealthAs You SowAntibiotics and Factory Farms, Austin Wilson
Disney revenue rises 9 percent on success of ‘The Jungle Book’
Disney revenue rises 9 percent on success of ‘The Jungle Book’

● Yum Brands investors on Tuesday filed a shareholder proposal requesting that it quickly phase out harmful antibiotic use in its meat supply, taking aim at the practices of the company’s KFC fried chicken chain. The plan from shareholder activists As You Sow of Oakland, Calif., and the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia comes as KFC lags rivals McDonald’s Corp., Chick-fil-A, Subway and Wendy’s Co. in setting policies to curb antibiotic use.

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Environmental HealthAs You SowAntibiotics and Factory Farms
Success And Shareholders -- Why Companies Should Engage
Success And Shareholders -- Why Companies Should Engage

Since 1992, As You Sow has used shareholder advocacy to increase corporate responsibility on a broad range of environmental and social issues. As shareholder advocates, we communicate directly with corporate executives to collaboratively develop and implement business models which reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and increase the bottom line—while simultaneously bringing positive environmental and social change.

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Invest Your ValuesAs You SowAndrew Behar
One-Third Southern Company shareholders vote for more renewable energy
One-Third Southern Company shareholders vote for more renewable energy

Shareholder resolutions filed at Southern Company by an advocacy group, As You Sow, and faith-based investor coalition, the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (“Tri-State CRI”) sent Southern Company’s Board and management a strong message: to reduce carbon asset risk and align its business with a “2 degrees” climate scenario, according to a press release.

One resolution, by As You Sow, would have required Southern Company to quantify and disclose its “carbon asset risk,” or the potential losses to shareholders from coal operations.

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EnergyAs You Sowclimate change
Energy reserves proposal has Chevron over a barrel
Energy reserves proposal has Chevron over a barrel

“In a carbon-constrained world, what’s going to happen with these companies?” asked Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of the activist group As You Sow. “Traditionally, they’ve had to replace their reserves, or the market penalizes them. So how do they make this transition that we think is necessary?”

Chevron’s corporate board, however, has recommended shareholders reject the proposal, calling it unnecessary and confusing. As You Sow, based in Oakland, has presented the same proposal to ExxonMobil shareholders for their annual meeting on Wednesday, with Exxon’s board also opposing the change.

“It would be making a statement that Big Oil is really Big Energy,” said Andrew Behar, As You Sow’s chief executive officer. “When we have conversations with them, they keep saying, ‘No, no, we’re an energy company.’ And we say, ‘But you report in oil.’ You are what you measure.”

As You Sow’s proposal would expand that notion of comparing one resource to another, measuring all of an oil company’s reserves or energy-generating assets in BTUs. (One BTU represents the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1 degree Fahrenheit.)

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EnergyAs You Sowclimate change, Andrew Behar, Danielle Fugere