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Shareholder Success with Apple Computer
As You Sow's resolution garnered a strong 10.3% of shareholders voting - the strongest vote of any e-waste proposal since the effort began in 2002. The proposal was supported by 44 million shares worth about $3.2 billion. At the April 27 shareholder meeting, CEO Steve Jobs committed the company to a higher-level dialogue with shareholder proponents to review other measures that can be taken to improve recycling and take back. Apple's announcement is an important step forward but falls short of the commitments As You Sow and the Computer TakeBack Campaign secured from HP and Dell. HP and Dell not only have expanded their recycling program but they committed to specific recovery targets. In 2005, Apple took back 6.2 million pounds of e-waste, while Dell reclaimed 41 million pounds and Hewlett-Packard brought in 114 million pounds. Both HP and Dell have created business profit centers from computer recycling. We are asking Apple to do the same.
As You Sow's work on electronic waste has been cited in recent issues of Wired Magazine, BusinessWeek, and San Jose Mercury News.
Stakeholders Convene: Genetically Modified Foods Following up on concerns raised by As You Sow, Starbucks has recently hosted its first ever Supply Chain Summit for all its suppliers and GMOs were a featured issue. At our request, the summit included a presentation by Rick North from Physicians for Social Responsibility regarding rBGH (bovine growth hormone). In March, a Nebraska based stakeholders meeting initiated by As You Sow with Cargill/Nature Works and facilitated by Future 500 resulted in NatureWorks agreeing to address key concerns raised by stakeholders. As You Sow initiated this meeting as a new approach to get companies and NGOs looking for common solutions with regards to new biodegradable bio-plastics based on corn and other starches known as polylactic acid polymers (PLA). The meeting consisted of NatureWorks CEO and senior management, potential customers such as Coca Cola, Starbucks, Earth Brand, Seventh Generation, investors and a wide assortment of NGOs. NatureWorks agreed to several steps including conducting a feasibility study on how it could go GMO-free in its corn based plastics, as well as to develop a pilot project with the city of San Francisco for sorting out bio-plastics from petro-plastics in the recycling stream. From a shareholder perspective these proactive agreements will head off consumer and investor backlash by having companies and NGOs meet and discuss their concerns upfront before there is public fallout, and to set some timelines/benchmarks for how to address their differences. As You Sow initiated, and ICCR is coordinating, a GMO liability briefing scheduled for September 18th in New York. This briefing specifically for food companies will provide a financial update, including a featured presentation by Swiss Re, regarding risks and alternatives to potential liabilities from GMO's. An official invitation and agenda will be sent to about 2 dozen food companies (McDonalds, Wendy's, SBUX, Coke, Heinz, Hershey, etc) that As You Sow and ICCR have engaged over the last few years. Getting Lead out of Children's Jewelry As You Sow, in collaboration with the California Attorney General and Center for Environmental Health, has successfully moved more than 70 retailers to agree to reduce the lead in children's costume jewelry at the beginning of the year. High lead levels in jewelry have lead to numerous cases of serious lead poisoning in recent years. Exposure is especially dangerous for young children and possible in some cases with as little as handling the jewelry and putting their hands in their mouths. More news.
Most recently Wal-Mart joined the agreement in April, joining other retailers such as Target, Kmart, Nordstrom, Sears, Macy's and Disney. The settlement reached using California's unique Proposition 65 requires the companies and their suppliers to meet new standards for lead-free and low-lead jewelry and to meet those standards as quickly as possible, but no later than March 2008.
Read the Attorney General's most recent press release.
Sustainability Steps: Coca-Cola and TimeWarner As You Sow withdrew from consideration our shareholder proposal at Coca-Cola asking the company to set container take back goals after the company agreed to work with its industry peers "to seek quantitative and national goals that encourage the most effective means for increasing recycling." We recognize Coke cannot set national goals on its own, but can use its influence as a leader to drive a potential industry-wide agreement on take back goals within the next year. We need to remain vigilant to ensure Coke keeps its commitment but we were pleased to get this agreement. We believe our long-term relationship with the company as investors played a role in the success. Learn more At our request, Time Inc. recently published its first Sustainability Report which discusses the environmental impacts of its enormous paper purchasing operations. The company, which is the largest magazine company in the world, continues to balk at setting recycled paper content goals. Time prefers to focus on ramping up levels of recovered paper and ensuring they are recycled in some fashion (i.e. lower end uses like cardboard) rather than ensuring they end us as recycled magazine paper in Time publications. But we are making progress in building a relationship with the company. Time Inc's parent TimeWarner also agreed to establish a labor code of conduct in response to our shareholder resolution. This is a step forward for improving factory conditions world-wide.
Time Inc. Sustainability Report.
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