Posts tagged Andrew Behar
10 Reasons Why ESG Won’t Be Stopped

“Things have to be verified in a standardized format. Right now, it’s creating distrust between companies and owners,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, the shareholder advocacy nonprofit.

Meanwhile, fund names should accurately reflect their ESG practices. “There is no connection between a prospectus and its holdings,” Behar says. In January, As You Sow published a study of 94 mutual funds and ETFs with the word ESG in their name. Based on the firm’s criteria of what makes a good ESG fund, 60 received a D or an F grade. Read More →

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New SEC Rules to Shed Light on BlackRock, Vanguard ESG Votes

ESG disclosure is maturing and starting to get the support it needs from the SEC, said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group that pushes companies to be more socially responsible.

“It’s all moving us into a place where we can actually judge which companies are part of an economy based on justice and sustainability,” Behar said. Read More →

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End of an Era for Anti-Social Media

Andrew Behar, CEO of US-based shareholder advocacy NGO As You Sow, says platforms like Meta are operating under “an authoritarian regime”.

“We’ve been filing social-focused resolutions at Meta for six years, but change doesn’t happen if [Zuckerberg] and his board don’t agree,” he says. “Although it’s technically a public company, it operates like a private one, with one man at the helm.” Read More →

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Green investors to step up pressure on U.S. utilities after court ruling

By constraining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, the court put responsibility on investors looking to slow climate change, said Andrew Behar, chief executive of the nonprofit group As You Sow, a which often files shareholder resolutions. Read More →

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Holding Management to Account

Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, joins the podcast to discuss the power of using shareholder advocacy to drive change at large corporations. Andrew walks us through “a day in the life,” specifically May 25, 2022, when his team presented resolutions at five corporate annual meetings on issues ranging from climate change to racial justice; Andrew talks about the SEC’s new draft rule that addresses the ESG naming problem within mutual funds; and the paradox of employees unknowingly investing in companies that are destroying the Amazon through company retirement plans. Read More →

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As You Sow Uses KPIs And Data To Help Shareholders Advocate For Long-Term Corporate Change

Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, says companies that adopt a stakeholder capitalism framework to benefit more than just shareholders will create lasting value for all stakeholders and strengthen the bottom line. “If it’s good for the employees; good for the customers; good for the community; and good for the supply chain; it’s generally good for the business, which means it’s good for shareholders,” he told me during a recent conversation as part of my research on purpose-driven business. Read More →

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How to check if your investments are funding gun companies

Tools like Gun Free Funds or Weapons Free Funds are also simple ways of identifying funds that have exposure to guns or other types of weapons, and finding alternative ESG options. Both tools are managed by As You Sow, a 30-year-old nonprofit that encourages shareholder activism. “There’s 100 million people with 401k plans that are profiting from these gun manufacturers, and no one’s even aware of it,” said Andrew Behar CEO of As You Sow. Read More →

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Some companies that deal in firearms might surprise you – and their investors

Andrew Behar runs As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate responsibility. “They’re included in mutual funds, and in people’s 401(k) plans, and most people are not even aware of that,” he said. Behar’s company runs a website called Weapon Free Funds that helps people look up whether they’re invested in the gun industry. “Which looks at both military weapons, but also civilian weapons. Including assault weapons and ammunition,” he said. Read More →

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You might be invested in gun manufacturers and not know it. Here’s how to check—and then divest

"It’s amazing how much power people have in their money, in their savings, in their 401(k) plans," says Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate social responsibility through shareholder advocacy. "It really just comes down to: Do you want to profit off of assault weapons, handguns, and ammunition? If you don’t, you need to know what you own." Read More →

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U.S. SEC unveils rules to ensure ESG funds follow through on investments

While the new rules will affect most funds, including index funds, their target is ESG funds which drew a record $649 billion globally through Nov. 30, up from $542 billion and $285 billion in 2020 and 2019, respectively, according to Refinitiv Lipper data. Andrew Behar, president of climate-activist group, As You Sow, said market participants have exploited a loophole in the current rules when naming funds. Read More →

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KraneShares ETF seeks ‘low-carbon leaders,’ but dinged on fossil fuel holdings

But while such companies may be low-carbon in the future, they are high-carbon today, said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a Berkeley, Calif.-based non-profit shareholder advocacy organization that promotes environmental and social responsibility. "Many are also expanding fossil fuel operations at the same time as investing in renewables," Mr. Behar said in an email.

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