IBD Senior Reporter Gillian Rich speaks with Danielle Fugere, president of the activist group As You Sow., to learn what's next after Chevron shareholders in May backed proposals for further emission cuts. Read More →
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As You Sow’s Invest Your Values tools allow consumers to see which companies are part of their funds and decide if the holdings align with their values, such as climate issues, gender equality, guns, tobacco and more. Read More →
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“This is a positive trend,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. “This year was probably the most extraordinary in terms of shareholder empowerment and shareholders actually showing up and using the power of their vote to express discontent with companies.“ Read More →
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The new objective comes after GE investors in May overwhelmingly backed a shareholder proposal pushing the company to say whether it planned to reach net-zero by 2050. As You Sow, the shareholder advocacy group behind the push, also pushed the company to include emissions from the use of its products and its supply chain in its net zero goal, saying the company had been slow to address this category, undoubtedly the largest associated with the company. Read More →
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What the companies and large money managers did not mention is the entire ‘shareholder advocacy’ community of professionals. This includes faith-based, impact, and socially responsible investors, as well as non-profit shareholder advocates like As You Sow, the organisation of which I am CEO. Read More →
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“Microsoft positions itself as a leader on climate and the environment, yet facilitates premature landfilling of its devices by restricting consumer access to device reparability,” said Kelly McBee, the waste programme co-ordinator at As You Sow. Read More →
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A review of top US companies from the Sustainable Investments Institute and partners As You Sow and Proxy Impact identified 34 majority votes this year for proposals regarding environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, issues. That's well above last year's record of 21 (and the number could keep growing). Read More →
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“This was a political rulemaking not warranted by the record or the evidence,” said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, a California shareholder activist group and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Read More →
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As You Sow, a nonprofit that pushes for corporate accountability through shareholder action, is cautiously optimistic. “You can add new people to the board, but if the company stays on business as usual, then we haven’t solved anything,” says CEO Andrew Behar. Read More →
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Danielle Fugere is the president of the group As You Sow, which focuses on shareholder activism. She said it's a market reality that the world is taking climate change seriously. She said she thinks businesses should join the movement, instead of putting up a fight. "Because as climate change occurs, it impacts every company globally," said Fugere. "It makes it much more difficult to maintain business." Read More →
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“We are in the midst of a major transformation,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit focused on shareholder advocacy. While these votes are typically non-binding, boards could face a no-confidence vote from governance groups if they ignore them. “Investors who have traditionally abdicated their power have begun to use their power,” Behar said. Read More →
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“The big fund companies have a massive aggregation of power that comes from the investments of their shareholders,” said Andrew Behar, chief executive of As You Sow. “At the very least, the fund companies shouldn’t be allowed to vote if they have conflicts of interest.” Read More →
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“Shareholders have no patience for companies that are insulating executives from the effects of COVID,” said Rosanna Landis-Weaver, who authors an annual report urging opposition to CEO pay packages for As You Sow, in an interview. Read More →
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The newly-passed proposal is one such step. Plastic pellets are the raw components of almost all plastic products, As You Sow explained in its release. These petrochemical building blocks are estimated to be the second-largest source of microplastics in the ocean by weight. It is believed that about 10 trillion of them are spilled into the environment every year. Read More →
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"Given the growing consensus on the material risks related to the climate crisis, investors seek assurance that company lobbying activities support, and do not block, policy solutions designed to help markets decarbonize," Lila Holzman, an energy expert at the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, said in an email. "It is no surprise that shareholder resolutions on this topic are seeing record high votes this year, and we absolutely expect this trend to continue." Read More →
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Already this AGM season, a majority of American Express investors voted in support of a shareholder resolution filed by NGO As You Sow, which asks the company to report on how its internal workplace practices align with its stated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Read More →
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“They never make those statements to the upside. When external events lead to windfalls or high pay, you don’t see companies adjusting for that,” said Rosanna Landis-Weaver, a corporate governance and compensation expert with As You Sow, a leading shareholder advocacy nonprofit. “They generally only ever make adjustments in one direction.” Read More →
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In response to Walmart's commitment, As You Sow withdrew its shareholder proposal filed with the company and nine other consumer goods retailers in January 2021, it said in a statement. Read More →
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According to As You Sow, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy group that helped file the proposal, DuPont’s environmental reports will “disclose trends in the amount of plastic in various forms released to the environment by the company annually and concisely assess the effectiveness of the company’s policies and actions to reduce the volume of the company’s plastic materials contaminating the environment.” Read More →
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“These are the last people that need to have their pay accommodated,” said Rosanna Landis Weaver, a program manager at As You Sow, a non-profit focused on shareholder advocacy. “If it’s heads I win, tails I win almost as much -- that’s not pay-for-performance. It’s just ridiculous.” Read More →
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