“No one is looking at the actual holdings. They’re not looking at the flow of capital. They’re looking at the label,” said Andy Behar, CEO of As You Sow. “If they renamed all their ESG funds … that would probably make the people in Texas and the red states happy.” Read More →
Read More“This is a positive trend,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. “This year was probably the most extraordinary in terms of shareholder empowerment and shareholders actually showing up and using the power of their vote to express discontent with companies.“ Read More →
Read MoreThe resolution, filed by US non-profit As You Sow, asks BlackRock for “the board’s perspective” on how its “governance and management systems should be altered, if at all, to fully implement the New Statement of Purpose”. Read More →
Read MoreAs You Sow has targeted BlackRock at its own annual meeting in the past for its failure to support more resolutions. Andrew Behar delivered a speech from the floor of the BlackRock meeting last year pointing to what he sees as a disconnect between BlackRock’s words and actions, for “using its big stick like a wet noodle” Behar says, and that means he remains skeptical until he sees the results from the upcoming annual meeting season. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, isn’t worried… “Milton Friedman has been thrown under the bus and a 50-year battle for the hearts and minds of business globally has been won,” Behar said. “We’re literally six months into the biggest transition in business history. Things are changing at rapid speed.” Read More →
Read More"We are learning things from COVID that are going to be applied to all of business," said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a non-profit organization promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy and coalitions. He predicts a shift toward more fact-based business decisions, whether they're addressing greenhouse gas emissions or income inequality. Read More →
Read MoreIn his presentation of the proposal, Andrew Behar, CEO of the non-profit organization As You Sow, which promotes investor action on sustainable practices at corporations, said: “We agree with the World Economic Forum, the Business Roundtable and BlackRock on the path forward. This requires an alignment of words and actions. Yet historically, BlackRock has voted for nearly every egregious CEO pay package and against nearly every climate resolution. This cognitive dissonance is troubling.” Read More →
Read MoreBlackRock Inc. shocked Wall Street in January when CEO Larry Fink announced that the wealth mammoth was overhauling its investment strategy and putting sustainability at its core. Read More →
Read MoreCorporations holding annual general meetings this month are well familiar with two particularly attentive shareholders: Andrew Behar and Danielle Fugere of As You Sow. Along with groups like CERES and the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, the Berkeley, Calif., nonprofit has taken the lead in engaging corporations on issues from carbon footprints to workforce treatment. Read More →
Read MoreImpactAlpha, May 21 – Massive flooding in Midland, Michigan on Wednesday threatened to release chemicals from a Dow chemical complex, where products ranging from Saran Wrap to Agent Orange have been produced over years, and an adjacent Superfund site. It’s the kind of nightmare scenario that imperils public health as well as corporate value, and one that investor groups have been sounding the alarm on as global warming increases the frequency of severe weather events… “This should be a warning sign,” says Lila Holzman of As You Sow. Read More →
Read MoreThree titans of US banking and investment had their requests to omit shareholder proposals on implementing the Business Roundtable Statement of the Purpose of a Corporation slapped back by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday. Read More →
Read MoreBlackrock has become the latest US financial giant seeking to evade a shareholder proposal calling on it to outline how it will make good on its recent Business Roundtable commitments. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing environmental and social corporate responsibility, said in a statement, “It is positive to hear BlackRock make a clear statement on divestment of coal; however we do not see the same rhetoric about oil and gas or the banks that fund continued extraction of fossil fuels. Let’s see if their ESG funds are actually fossil free, including no coal-fired utilities, and if BlackRock votes their shares in support of Paris [climate accord] compliance and net-zero shareholder resolutions.” Read More →
Read MoreNEW YORK — A changing climate means dramatic risks for the world — and for investments too, the chief of the world’s largest investment manager said Tuesday. Read More →
Read More“Larry Fink has always had a large megaphone and his pronouncements on climate have been important, [but] we need to see action from BlackRock — from supporting climate-related shareholder proposals, to offering fossil-free options in 401(k) funds, to ensuring wide access to, and promotion of, passive funds that tilt away from fossil fuel-based energy,” said Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy firm focused on environmental issues and social corporate responsibility. Read More →
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