The proposal, filed by shareholder advocacy group As You Sow in November, requests that Eli Lilly report to shareholders on the efficacy of its DEI efforts, providing metrics on hiring, retention and promotion of employees, including gender, race and ethnicity data. Read More →
Read MoreThe DEI proposal was from liberal shareholder advocate As You Sow, while the abortion resolution came from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative investor. Both are frequent filers of environmental, social and governance proposals.
Read MoreCompanies must file an annual EEO-1 form with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission but are not required to make this information public. Doing so helps investors and other stakeholders evaluate corporate diversity initiatives. According to an As You Sow report, from August 2020 to October 2022, the number of S&P 100 companies publicly releasing their EEO-1 forms more than quadrupled. Read More →
Read MoreA new analysis of data from nearly 300 companies has found more evidence of a positive link between diverse workforces and management and the financial performance of companies. A report published Thursday by As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group that has long pushed companies to release information about their workplace demographics, includes findings based on 277 companies’ workforce data compared against more than a dozen financial metrics. Read More →
Read MoreAt least 94 firms on the S&P 100 have released or promised to share the figures about the demographics of their workforces that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collects each year, which is a huge jump from the 23 that did so two years earlier, according to a report this month by nonprofit shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow. In the past two years, the largest companies have bulked up public disclosure of data about the gender, race and ethnicity of their workforces by 300% or more in several categories. Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, CEO of US-based shareholder advocacy NGO As You Sow, says platforms like Meta are operating under “an authoritarian regime”.
“We’ve been filing social-focused resolutions at Meta for six years, but change doesn’t happen if [Zuckerberg] and his board don’t agree,” he says. “Although it’s technically a public company, it operates like a private one, with one man at the helm.” Read More →
Read MoreShareholder advocacy non-profit As You Sow has published the results of its corporate engagements on racial justice and workplace equity over the last 12 months, noting that 88% of the shareholder resolutions it filed against US companies this AGM season led to “improved practices”.. Read More →
Read MoreThe maker of Gillette razors and Downy fabric softener agreed to disclose the data after a campaign from the nonprofit As You Sow, which promotes environmental and social issues at large, public companies. P&G, which confirmed the deal, joins companies such as Nike Inc. that have agreed to share data on efforts to hire and promote under-represented groups. Read More →
Read MoreIt’s the next layer of detail that offers investors a glimpse on how well companies are utilizing employees from minority groups, according to Meredith Benton, workplace equity program manager at As You Sow.
“It’s not whether an employee can make it in the door, it’s will they stay once they are there,” Benton said. Read More →
Read MoreThe nonbinding resolution lost, with investors representing 55 percent of company shares voting against the proposal at AT&T's urging. But Meredith Benton of Oakland, California-based As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy nonprofit, said the vote tally was unusually high and predicted that the company's leadership would take it seriously. Read More →
Read MoreMeredith Benton, founder of consultancy Whistle Stop Capital and workplace equity program manager at As You Sow, formally presented the proposal to AT&T shareholders, according to the advocacy group. ‘It’s an incredible risk for AT&T to take, to be so deeply associated with anti-choice legislation,’ she says in a statement. ‘AT&T believes it needs to be involved in politics; we’re not arguing with that point. It is hard to see why, however, it is not managing the risks involved with supporting politicians who sit so clearly outside of its own company values.’ Read More →
Read MoreAndrew Behar, CEO of the nonprofit As You Sow, which represents a group of activist Twitter shareholders, says Twitter under Musk will likely look a lot like Meta (formerly Facebook) under Mark Zuckerberg.
“You have one person in charge. Mark Zuckerberg makes all the decisions. No matter what resolution you file, he owns a 10 to 1 voting preference,” says Behar. “There's a lot of danger when you have all that power isolated in one person like Zuckerberg. Now we've got that with Twitter.” Read More →
Read MoreOlivia Knight, racial justice initiative manager at As You Sow joined Charles to discuss that Fast Company has released its 10 most innovative not-for-profit organizations of 2022. As You Sow’s inclusion on Fast Company’s top 10 list for its Racial Justice Scorecard shows the importance of actionable data on corporate racial justice accountability, monitoring environmental justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and other metrics as all stakeholders seek an end to systemic racism.
Read MoreIn its supporting statement, As You Sow writes: ‘Quantitative data is sought so that investors can assess, understand and compare the effectiveness of companies’ [DE&I] programs and apply this analysis to investors’ portfolio management and securities’ selection process.’
The group cites studies including ones finding that companies with the strongest racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their industry medians, and that the 20 most diverse companies had an average annual five-year stock return 5.8 percent higher than the 20 least-diverse companies. Read More →
Read MoreMeredith Benton, a consultant with Berkeley, Calif.-based As You Sow and a principal at Whistle Stop Capital, said “Nike is notably lagging” when it comes to releasing data on who it recruits, retains and promotes. Read More →
Read MoreBeyond its habit of putting polluting infrastructure in predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods, another reason the energy sector underperformed on the scorecard was what As You Sow called a “serious lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion disclosure.” Read More →
Read MoreThe nonprofit, As You Sow, collected and analyzed data from S&P 500 companies showing what it says is the environmental impact of operations on communities of color. It said it scrutinized their products, environmental violations and fines and corporate actions. Read More →
Read MoreWhistle Stop Capital CEO Meredith Benton, a consultant to shareholder group As You Sow, which filed the Berkshire Hathaway diversity proposal, said Berkshire Hathaway stood out in demonstrating little initiative on the ESG front and Buffett showed a "lack of leadership." Read More →
Read MoreThe conglomerate run by famed investor Warren Buffett is opposing a shareholder proposal calling on its board to publish an annual report detailing its diversity and inclusion efforts. Proposed by the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow on behalf of Handlery Hotels, it contends that more diverse workplaces are more profitable, more likely to outperform against competitors and have higher stock returns. Read More →
Read MoreSome companies that are reluctant to criticize specific laws or policies are still willing to come out with more general statements. For example, roughly 330 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500 Index issued comments last year in support of social justice in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in the custody of Minneapolis police, according to shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. Read More →
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