Energy, materials and real estate firms are not reaping the “diversity dividend” which links multiracial management to better profitability, a new study of companies across eight industry sectors from shareholder activist group As You Sow shows. Read More →
Read MoreDanielle Fugere is president and chief counsel of As You Sow, one of America’s most prominent nonprofit shareholder advocacy groups. As You Sow nudges the largest U.S. public companies toward adopting the green practices their investors want to see. 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 MoreDanielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of the environmental advocacy group As You Sow, argued that California's enactment of Senate Bill 253 will "shore up" the SEC's draft proposal. "There's been a lot of discussion around whether Scope 3 requirements will be removed from the SEC's proposal," Fugere said, adding that she is hopeful that the California measure "will help the SEC stand firm." Read More →
Read MoreOlivia Knight, As You Sow’s racial-justice initiative manager, says the next year will be pivotal in seeing whether companies continue to shrink away from their DEI pledges—what some have dubbed “diversity ditching”—or whether the trend has peaked. “We’ll know more about who is staying true to their promises and who is throwing them out the window,” she says. Read More →
Read More“You get the feeling when you read the proxy statements that these executives are trying to squeeze as much personal wealth from the company as they can,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. 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 More"In terms of accelerating climate change, a key impact of continuing to invest in high-carbon industries [or] greenhouse gas emissions is signaling to markets and governments that it's okay to continue with business as usual," said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreBarron’s cited Rosanna Landis Weaver, a program manager at shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, who claims that companies will sometimes set ESG bonus targets for "dealing with low-hanging fruit." "Everybody should be having these town halls, this isn’t what we should be paying extra for," she told the Barron’s. Read More →
Read MoreDavid Shugar, manager of the Say on Climate initiative, on the crucial role shareholders can play. Shareholder engagement tools include active dialogue, filing of shareholder resolutions where necessary, voting on resolutions and even escalation to the board level where companies remain non-responsive. 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 MoreIn this episode we speak with Andrew Behar, the CEO of As You Sow, the United States’ leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. We talk about how As You Sow engages with boards and management teams on issues like climate change; toxins in the food system; ocean plastics; diversity, equity, and inclusion; racial justice; and wage equity. Read More →
Read MoreCompanies sometimes set ESG bonus targets for “dealing with low-hanging fruit,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver, a program manager at shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which pushes for stricter criteria. 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 More“Compensation for these CEOs never goes down in bad times as much as it goes up in good times,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. “When things are going well, boards always say, ‘Oh, my God, they’re all geniuses,’ and when things go bad it’s always blamed on external factors and not the person in charge.”. Read More →
Read MoreCompanies that received failing grades included no tie between CEO pay and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Others didn’t provide enough of an incentive to be meaningful, authors said. “A de minimis thing isn’t useful,” said Rosanna Landis Weaver, As You Sow’s director of wage justice and executive pay. “Our point, in general, is it’s important to do this right.” Read More →
Read More“Employees are unknowingly lending their money to expand fossil fuel operations,” said Andrew Montes director of digital strategies at As You Sow. While bonds are generally thought of as less risky from an investment returns point of view, the global warming associated with lending to oil and gas businesses increases the risk that retirees will be living a world more impacted by climate change, he said. Read More →
Read MoreMultinational corporations need to have reusable packaging strategies in place as part of risk management, according to Kelly McBee, circular economy senior coordinator at As You Sow, to comply with a Global Plastics Treaty deemed by the United Nations aimed to end single-use plastic production and usage by 2024 under an international legally binding agreement. Read More →
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