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“Kelly McBee, circular economy manager for As You Sow, a shareholder activist group that pushes companies to adopt sustainable practices, says she is disappointed by the lack of progress: ‘With companies reaching the end of 2025 and a lot of these goals for recyclability, for virgin plastic reduction, for recycled content, and the vast majority of company action not keeping pace with ambition…" Read More →
“‘We've been working for five years now filing proposals with the company and having sporadic engagements with them,’ Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of the nonprofit group As You Sow, told Newsweek." Read More →
“Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president at As You Sow, said the organization is ‘fairly hopeful’ following this year’s outcomes. Amid political pressures against ESG initiatives, vote totals appeared lower than in the past, but 'I think we know why they’re lower,’ he said." Read More →
“‘As You Sow is deeply disappointed in this unexpected action by PepsiCo,” added Kelly McBee, circular economy manager at As You Sow. ‘The move appears counterintuitive to the company’s previous leadership in tackling plastic pollution and its PEP+ program to operate within planetary boundaries.’" Read More →
“Kelly McBee, a plastic pollution prevention specialist at As You Sow, said the group is targeting beverage and snack companies because ‘most of these companies produce goods that are designed to be consumed on the go or in small quantities, so the scale of their packaging is some of the greatest.’” Read More →
“As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group, chose to make flexibles a focal point this year following the relative lack of achievement on 2025 plastics targets set via groups such as the U.S. Plastics Pact and Ellen MacArthur Foundation.” Read More →
“In another positive sign for those concerned about human health and ocean pollution, the SEC sided with As You Sow over Pepsi Co on a shareholder resolution urging the soda and food giant to reduce plastic pollution." Read More →
“As You Sow Senior Vice President Conrad MacKerron said in a statement that car tires are ‘a growing source of toxic microplastic pollution that harms ecosystems and fish, and may pose danger to human health.’ The group said tire wear particles account for an estimated 78% of microplastic leakage into oceans, and that tire wear emissions become airborne and can pose ‘serious human health risks.’" Read More →
Conrad MacKerron, the organization’s senior vice president, noted that there are still plenty of opportunities outside of Amazon’s e-commerce business to cut down on unnecessary plastic packaging. Read More →
“Every company can be doing more,” said Kelly McBee, circular economy manager at As You Sow and one of the report’s co-authors. In particular, she said corporations should place more emphasis on reducing the plastic they use, rather than replacing virgin plastic with recycled content. Read More →
Multinational 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 →
How 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 →
This 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 →
But in recent years, the company has backslid, according to reports from other environmental nonprofits. In 2020, the advocacy group As You Sow gave the company an ‘F’’ for its plastic packaging policies — ranking it below many companies which boast a far less sustainable public image. Read More →
California is taking aim at the plastics industry in an effort to reduce pollution and tackle climate change. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the nation's toughest rules on plastics reduction into law last week, requiring all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable by 2032, cutting plastic packaging by 25 percent in 10 years, and requiring 65 percent of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled in the same timeframe. Kelly McBee, Waste Program Coordinator at As You Sow, explains the potential impact this law could have on reducing plastic pollution across the country. Read More →
Even since 2021, Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow’s senior vice president, said that he’s observed a significant jump in support for plastics-related shareholder resolutions. “We saw a real shift,” he told Grist, including a 14 percent spike in yes votes for this year’s Amazon resolution compared to a similar proposal filed last year. Read More →
Kelly McBee, waste program coordinator at As You Sow, answers this question and others to help peel back the filmy layers that cloud companies’ sustainability stories and bring more clarity. As You Sow advocates for environmental and social corporate responsibility on behalf of companies’ shareholders. Read More →
Based on these findings, Microsoft will be taking actions to enable greater repairability of its devices by the end of the year, as stipulated in an agreement the tech company reached with investor advocacy nonprofit As You Sow last fall. Read More →
“We are pleased to see the company increase its commitment to reusable bottles as a proven method to reduce single-use plastic waste and promote a circular economy for packaging,” said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president at As You Sow, which declared the move “industry-leading” among consumer conglomerates.
“We agree with the company that reusable packaging is among the most effective ways to reduce waste, use fewer resources and lower carbon emissions,” he said.
Green Century and activist investor As You Sow filed a shareholder proposal urging Coca-Cola to reduce single-use plastic. They are now considering whether to withdraw their proposal. Read More →
Kelly McBee, waste program coordinator for As You Sow,, said she expected other manufacturers to follow in Apple and Microsoft’s footsteps. “I absolutely think we will see more of a domino effect,” she said. “These are two of the greatest players in this space, and they have set a new bar for their competitors.” Read More →
At Apple and John Deere, shareholder resolutions have already been filed and, thanks to the success of this one from As You Sow, more filings are likely on the way, says Wiens. Read More →
As You Sow represents broad social interests for shareholders, but their listed priority groups don't explicitly include right-to-repair. Read More →
“There has been this history of making big, grand promises on recycling and not following through,” says Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, an organization that prods big corporations on environmental performance. Read More →
According to As You Sow, Microsoft has committed to launching a third-party study to evaluate the matter. But perhaps more importantly, the company is also promising to “expand the availability of certain parts and repair documentation beyond Microsoft’s Authorized Service Provider network.” Read More →
“The company has set a significant initial goal to reduce the use of virgin plastic,” says Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow “We encourage other companies to step forward and make bolder, larger absolute cuts in overall plastic packaging. Reducing virgin plastic use is a good start, but cuts in total plastic use have a greater impact. We need hundreds of companies to make significant cuts in single-use plastic packaging if we are to make meaningful progress in reducing the flow of plastic wastes into oceans.” Read More →
Yesterday, Microsoft has agreed to increase consumers’ options to repair their devices by the end of 2022, and in response, As You Sow withdrew the shareholder resolution. Read More →
As You Sow, a shareholder activism nonprofit group, brought a resolution with Microsoft about its repair restrictions. On Thursday, the group withdrew its resolution. “This is an encouraging step,” said Kelly McBee, waste program coordinator for the nonprofit. Read More →
"Microsoft positions itself as a leader on climate and the environment, yet facilitates premature landfilling of its devices by restricting consumer access to device reparability," Kelly McBee, waste program coordinator at As You Sow, wrote in the filed resolution. Read More →
As You Sow calls Microsoft’s commitment “an encouraging step,” but it’s worth keeping in perspective that it is just a step — what Microsoft has actually done today is said that it’ll have a study done and then use it to “guide” its “product design and plans for expanding device repair options,” according to a statement emailed to The Verge by a Microsoft spokesperson. Read More →