As You Sow, a leading shareholder representative, in collaboration with investment advisor Carbon Collective and shareholder voting platform iconik, today announced a new program integrated into its 401(k) employer-sponsored retirement plan that enables every employee to direct fund managers how to vote proxies according to their preferences.
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Today, over 20 shareholders with more than $63 billion in assets sent letters to Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Meta (NASDAQ:META), and DoorDash (NASDAQ:DASH) asking that they publicly disassociate their brands from the Canada Strong & Free conference that they are currently sponsoring and publicly refute the divisiveness, homophobia, hate speech, and far-right activism embodied by Chris Rufo, who is a featured keynote speaker at the conference.
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Constellation Brands released vote totals showing that approximately 25% of shareholders voted in support of stronger emissions goals and a transition towards a circular economy for packaging, two primary and urgent concerns for shareholders and the company.
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Yesterday, The Guardian reported on the widespread use of PFAS in U.S. pesticides—information previously denied by the Environmental Protection Agency—bringing a new level of attention to PFAS in the U.S. food system. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” have received growing consumer, media, and regulatory attention because of their linkage to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, and other health and environmental impacts.
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In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley discovered several toxic metals in 30 tampons across 18 product lines from 14 major tampon brands, fueling widespread doubt about the safety of this commonly used product and their manufacturers.
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Today, Fox News (NASDAQ: FOX) asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exclude an As You Sow shareholder proposal asking Fox to disclose the risks of inadequate differentiation between its on-air news and its opinion content. The proposal highlights the financial and reputational risks associated with viewers mistakenly assuming that Fox opinion personalities are journalists delivering fact-based information.
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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. Chevron enabled government agencies to write and enforce the most basic rules that protect Americans. It is the backbone of modern American governance, standing for the common-sense idea that reasonable interpretations of laws made by agencies charged with implementing them should receive deference from federal judges far removed from on-the-ground expertise.
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Late Monday, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas dismissed ExxonMobil Corporation’s lawsuit against Arjuna Capital. The dismissal marks what should be the end of an inglorious saga for Exxon, which filed the lawsuit in response to the submission of a shareholder proposal by Arjuna rather than seeking exclusion through the normal Securities and Exchange Commission process.
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New analysis from As You Sow finds that employee retirement 401(k) plans are channeling hundreds of billions of dollars into military weapons manufacturers, including companies involved with nuclear arms, cluster munitions, and other controversial weapons. Every plan analyzed had companies linked to nuclear or controversial weapons in their top 100 equity holdings, with RTX Corp, Boeing, and GE Aerospace among the most frequent investments.
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Today, Tesla Inc. (NYSE: TSLA) shareholders will vote on a proposal, filed by shareholder representative As You Sow, asking Tesla to adopt a deep-sea mining moratorium. Tesla has yet to take a public stand on the controversial issue of deep-sea mining, in stark contrast to peers, including BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen, Rivian, and Renault, which have each signed a moratorium. A similar proposal voted on at the General Motors shareholder meeting on June 4 received 12% support, a solid vote of support for this new issue.
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Today, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing on investors’ action to address climate change, the latest chapter of a protracted investigation into what the Judiciary Committee majority alleges are antitrust violations among investors responding to the severe economic threat posed by climate change. The Committee has targeted As You Sow and 13 other organizations with an investigation. Arjuna Capital, Ceres, and CalPERS were called as witnesses in today’s hearing.
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Today, As You Sow, in partnership with Ubuntoo, an environmental solutions platform, released their “2024 Plastic Promises Scorecard” ranking 225 global companies across 15 industries on their ambition and actions to reduce plastic packaging pollution. One major finding of the report is the significant gap between companies’ stated plastic reduction commitments and actions taken to meet those commitments.
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Tomorrow, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shareholders will vote on a proposal asking Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to report on how it plans to protect its employees from the financial risk created by investing in fossil fuel and other high-carbon companies. The resolution is filed by shareholder representative As You Sow.
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Today, 12% of General Motors (NYSE: GM) shareholders voted in support of the first-ever deep-sea mining proposal, a strong vote for a first-of-its-kind proposal that allows it to be filed again next year, if necessary. Filed by shareholder representative As You Sow, the proposal asks General Motors to disclose its policies on the use of deep-sea mined minerals across its supply chain, a request timed to coincide with the company’s expanding production of new electric models to meet emissions requirements and growing customer demand for electric vehicles.
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Vote totals were released last Wednesday, May 31, for Exxon’s 2024 Annual General Meeting. The meeting was unique for both its tone and substance, with Exxon openly vilifying and disparaging its investors for asking questions about the future direction of the company.
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A team of scientists recently discovered glyphosate, the world’s most common weed killer, in more than 55% of sperm samples from a French infertility clinic. The study suggests a significant positive correlation between glyphosate presence in human sperm and a negative impact on reproductive health. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S. food system despite being labeled a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 2015.
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Today, Meta shareholders will vote on a proposal filed by shareholder representative As You Sow asking the company to assess the impact of reinstating “enhanced actions” put in place to protect the 2020 election and prohibiting political advertising on its platform prior to the 2024 election. The requested actions would reduce misinformation and hate speech on its platforms during another heated election cycle.
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Tomorrow, ExxonMobil’s (NYSE: XOM) shareholders will vote on a proposal filed by United Church Funds and represented by As You Sow calling on Exxon to report how a significant reduction in virgin plastic demand would impact the company’s financial position and the assumptions underlying its financial statements. Exxon tried and failed to block the proposal at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in March of this year, one of many confrontational actions by Exxon targeting shareholders this proxy season.
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Today, Chubb Ltd., one of the world’s leading insurers, announced shareholder support of 28.7% for a shareholder proposal calling on the insurer to measure and disclose greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from its underwriting, insuring, and investment activities in high-carbon companies including fossil fuels. The resolution was filed by investor representative As You Sow and Green Century Capital Management.
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Today, Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., one of the largest North American trucking companies operating in 48 states, faces a shareholder vote on an Amalgamated Bank and As You Sow proposal calling for Old Dominion to adopt interim and long-term greenhouse gas reduction (GHG) targets to reach Net Zero emissions by 2050. The transportation sector plays a pivotal role in reaching the Paris Agreement’s goal as it is the highest emitting sector in the United States, with 24% of these emissions from ground freight transportation.
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