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Shareholders’ rights are under threat, but with market forces like the wind at our back, nothing can silence our voices.
Despite ongoing attacks on social and environmental progress, a hopeful trend is emerging. People are standing up in the streets to protect their neighbors, and the public’s desire for environmental progress remains steadfast. Most companies have quietly retained their diversity and equity policies, and environmental protections, as a means of risk management.
This administration has blocked the development of clean energy, but renewables still grew at a record pace last year. The free markets, led in part by steadfast shareholder support, are moving toward a regenerative economy, while events like the Iran war are showing the instability of fossil fuels and an outdated, extractive economic model.
Shareholders are a critical voice to ensure this momentum continues. Together we’re demanding the freedom to invest based on long-term sustainable growth and protecting the free flow of information necessary to make informed investment decisions.
Read on to see how your support is making this possible.
CREATIVE APPROACHES TO SOME OF OUR WORLD’S BIGGEST CHALLENGES — WITH POWERFUL RESULTS
Shareholder power is shifting the rules on deforestation
From left to right: As You Sow Sr. Director of Programs Cole Genge, As You Sow Biodiversity Coordinator Liz Levy, and Founder of Guardian Forestal Heriberto Padilla.
Our insatiable demand for avocado toast and guacamole has created serious environmental and social challenges for Mexico. The equivalent of more than 10 football fields of Mexican forests were being cleared to make way for avocado orchards every day, often illegally impinging on the monarch butterfly preserve and stealing water from local communities.
Since 2023, As You Sow has been engaging with major avocado importers, seeking their commitment to purchase avocados only from orchards certified as deforestation-free by the State of Michoacán’s Pro Forest Avocados (PFA) program. Last year, we reached an agreement with major fruit and vegetable distributor Mission Produce to adopt the certification for its products. Our subsequent engagements have led Walmart, Kroger, Costco, and other major retailers to join as well. More info.
Members of our staff traveled to Michoacán to meet with officials and witness the effects that avocado industry protections are having on Mexican forests.
Dr. Alejandro Méndez López, Michoacán’s Environmental Minister said, “Producers are, for the first time in my life, worried about complying with the law, not because of the police, but because of the market. As You Sow worked with the companies to move them - that was the magical touch.”
Illuminating the true cost of climate change
Catastrophic weather is causing homeowner’s insurance premiums to rise while
coverage declines.
We are requesting major homeowner insurance companies, including Travelers and Chubb, to explain to shareholders if and how they can remain in business in the age of climate change. Catastrophic damages are increasing, homeowners are being priced out of the insurance market, and more markets in the U.S. are becoming uninsurable. Our Chubb resolution asks why the company is not pursuing “subrogation” — or reimbursement — from the companies most responsible for climate change to offset the cost of rising premiums. Chubb refused to put our proposal on its proxy and since the SEC ended its adjudication process, we had to file suit to enforce our right to raise this important issue. With your support, we are facing these new challenges head on and escalating these conversations to the level they deserve.
Engaging companies on deep-sea mining
Deep-sea mining involves extracting minerals from the ocean floor, one of Earth's most fragile ecosystems.
After an engagement with As You Sow, major solar installer Sunrun — the largest residential solar company in America — formally joined the Business Moratorium Against Deep-Sea Mining in January 2026. Previously, following a resolution by As You Sow, solar manufacturer First Solar also committed to exclude deep-sea-mined minerals.
Reducing microfiber and microplastic shedding
in apparel
Plastic microfibers, from decades of global plastic use, have thoroughly contaminated our environment. These microfibers are inhaled and consumed, and they enter waterways where they release toxins and pose dangers to humans and marine life.
We’re working with apparel brands including Nike, Lululemon, Gap, Target, Walmart, and Under Armour to reduce plastic microfiber shedding from their clothes through policies such as garment take-back, reuse, and resale systems to extend product life.
Invest Your Values mutual fund screener upgraded!
This year we’ve also upgraded Invest Your Values, our free online platform that rates your mutual fund and ETF investments on eight different issue areas. For example, our Prison Free Funds tool shows whether you’re invested in private prison operators profiting from mass deportation, while Weapon Free Funds shows investments in arms manufacturers, military contractors, and nuclear weapons.
See how you’re investing at investyourvalues.org
We’re challenging new SEC restrictions in court
Last year, the Trump Administration issued an executive order directing the SEC to “revise or rescind” Rule 14a-8, the rule governing shareholder proposals. The SEC decided to stop adjudicating whether companies can exclude shareholder resolutions, forcing shareholders to go to court, as we have with Chubb. In response, As You Sow and ICCR filed suit against the SEC, arguing its change, made without required public comment procedures, violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and undermines long-standing shareholder rights.
Further narrowing shareholder rights, the SEC also recently announced that only shareholders with at least $5 million in a company’s stock can post exempt solicitations (aka proxy memos) to the SEC’s EDGAR system. This change limits shareholders’ ability to provide material information related to upcoming votes. In response, As You Sow created Proxy Open Exchange (POE), a community-driven platform ensuring accessible corporate governance transparency and discourse for everyone. After less than a week, POE had 63 filings, with dozens more expected, compared to the SEC's 39 exempt solicitations this year.
For 34 years, As You Sow has been changing corporations for good — but today we’re fighting just to ensure we can continue to do so.
Shareholders have been raising issues of material significance through shareholder resolutions and proxy memos since the 1940s. Changes to these systems are a significant setback for shareholder democracy and informed capital markets. As You Sow is challenging these restrictions while building new solutions to protect shareholders’ voices and the right to informed investing.
Our voices are needed now more than ever. Corporations are responsible for our world’s biggest challenges, but they also have the power to solve them. Thanks to you, we continue to engage with corporations with incredible success, while ensuring this administration can’t disassemble the systems we rely on.
