As ESG grew from $2.5 trillion at the decade’s start to $17.1 trillion by 2020, according to the U.S. arm of the GSIA, Danhof watched the Overton window move left. Progressive groups like As You Sow pushed for board diversity as part of ESG, and “it went from activist to mainstream” in half a decade, Danhof says, with the likes of Goldman Sachs and Nasdaq championing it. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow, the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. With a 30-year track record of success, As You Sow advances values-aligned investing and uses shareholder power to compel companies to reduce material risk on issues including climate change; toxins in the food system; ocean plastics; diversity, equity, and inclusion; racial justice; and wage equity. Read More →
Read More“Climate change, racial justice, diversity, equity and inclusion — these are all financial metrics because your workforce is part of whether your business can succeed or not,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of sustainable investing research firm As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreBut some disagree. “We don’t think there needs to be a differentiation, 90% of Exxon’s emissions are scope 3,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, “If scope 3 are the majority, we’re most interested in that.” A few fossil fuel giants, including Exxon Mobil (XOM), will be facing resolutions on scope 3 disclosure this year. Read More →
Read MoreInvestors at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo also voted on a first-time resolution filed by shareholder representative As You Sow asking them to provide climate transition plans for achieving their 2030 net-zero GHG emissions reduction goals. That measure fared slightly better and was endorsed by about 30% of shareholders.Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel at As You Sow, said she was pleased with the result. “Roughly a third of investors supporting the proposal indicates that the companies should be responsive,” she said. “It’s a first-year proposal, so we think this is very strong.” Read More →
Read MoreEnergy Monitor’s analysis reveals that, across As You Sow’s sample of nearly 3,000 funds, more than two-thirds of the 300-plus sustainable funds (69.7%) are exposed to oil and gas while just over a quarter (26.3%) are exposed to the 30 largest public-company owners of coal-fired power plants in developed markets, plus China and India. Read More →
Read MoreThat’s still not as much as some other utilities have done, and Berkshire has been either less aggressive or less specific in its commitments to bring down carbon emissions, said Daniel Stewart, energy and climate program manager for As You Sow, a shareholder-advisory group sponsoring a resolution at Berkshire’s meeting. Read More →
Read More“This creates a highly resistant environment to shareholders filing a shareholder proposal – you need to be a major asset owner to have a voice in Europe,” Andrew Behar, CEO of non-profit shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, tells ESG Investor. Unlike in the US, once filed, shareholder proposals in the UK are subject to achieving a majority vote and are binding. “In the US, we got a 96% majority vote last year and the company told us to take a hike,” says Behar. Read More →
Read More“If you’re a universal owner [of shares in companies across the economy] and you look at your portfolio, there are a small number of bad actors that harm the whole portfolio,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of the shareholder group As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreThe SEC has denied a request from the media and telecoms company for the green light to omit the proposal from its 2023 proxy statement. The resolution at issue, which was filed by As You Sow, requests that Comcast’s board ‘publish a report… disclosing how the company is protecting plan beneficiaries with a longer investment time horizon from climate risk in [Comcast’s] default retirement options.’ Read More →
Read More“Banks are fundamental to changing the direction of climate change,” said Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy nonprofit that has filed shareholder resolutions asking Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs to disclose transition plans describing how they intend to align their financing activities with their 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. Read More →
Read More"I don't ever like to say this, but it feels a little bit like window dressing — that they are attempting to convince investors that they're taking action," says Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow. "But because they aren't measuring, they aren't disclosing, we don't have a way to measure the effectiveness of those actions." Read More →
Read MoreThe chocolate industry and its watchdogs have been looking for solutions since a corporate accountability group based in California called As You Sow began finding lead and cadmium in dark chocolate in 2014. After years of litigation, As you Sow and the industry agreed to conduct a study to understand how metals are getting into chocolate and how to fix it. Read More →
Read MoreHow would that small change make a big impact on the amount of plastic going into our oceans? As You Sow is a shareholder advocacy company that posed those very questions to Micky D's themselves. How did the colossal cuisine company respond? 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 →
Read MoreThis year, As You Sow filed a new proposal requesting McDonald’s report on the environmental benefits of reusable packaging, but withdrew it ahead of the company’s annual meeting after McDonald’s told them it would publish such a report. A McDonald’s spokeswoman said the company had planned to carry out its study before the As You Sow proposal. Read More →
Read MoreAs You Sow President Danielle Fugere was pleased that Chubb is focusing on climate change but questioned how committed the insurance company is when it will not disclose its own or customer emissions. "Chubb's own reporting will not answer that question," Fugere said in a statement. Read More →
Read MoreClimate change issues will continue to dominate the hundreds of shareholder resolutions proposed at US companies in 2023, according to the Proxy Preview report released March 22 by advocacy groups As You Sow, Sustainable Investments Institute and Proxy Impact. Read More →
Read MoreThe timing of Chubb's move ahead of the proxy season, when investors consider climate proposals, was likely intentional, said Danielle Fugere, the president and chief counsel of As You Sow, a group that targets insurers with shareholder campaigns. Read More →
Read MoreProxy Preview 2023, an annual report published today (22 March) by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, in conjunction with the sustainable non-profit Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2) and ESG shareholder aggregator Proxy Impact, reveals that anti-ESG resolutions are on the rise this year, although they remain dwarfed by the number of shareholder resolutions in support of ESG aims. Read More →
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