Activists call for Oreo, Chips Ahoy packaging to be recyclable

Come May 18, at the company's annual meeting in suburban Lincolnshire, Mondelez shareholders will vote on a proposal introduced by As You Sow, a California-based nonprofit that challenges corporations on social and environmental issues. The group has brought similar proposals to Mondelez investors for the last three years, receiving about 28 percent support last year.

"We are sending a message here that's slowly catching on," said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow. "We'll see what happens."

Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies are "increasingly packaged in flexible film or other plastic packaging, such as pouches, that are not recyclable," according to As You Sow's proposal.

As You Sow is requesting a report that would assess the environmental impact and financial risks of using nonrecyclable packaging and set a timeline for phasing out such materials.

As You Sow doesn't typically buy shares of a given company directly, instead partnering with like-minded shareholders who sign off on the group representing their interests, MacKerron said.

"Over the years, McDonald's has engaged in constructive dialogue with As You Sow on a variety of topics, such as a multistakeholder project to address supply chain working conditions in Chinese toy factories and general conversations with updates on McDonald's packaging," McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa McComb said in an email.

The proposals are intended to "forestall harm, create value for the company or hopefully both," said Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow. And even shareholder proposals that receive very little support can start a conversation within a company.

"It's an important process no matter what the outcome is in a given year," Fugere said.

Waste, Circular EconomyAs You SowMarch 30, 2016Consumer Packaging, Conrad MacKerron, Danielle Fugere

SEC Overrides ExxonMobil Efforts to Stifle Shareholder Activism on Climate

One resolution, supported by the Oakland-based nonprofit advocacy group As You Sow, requested that the company report its energy resources in terms of BTUs, a scientifically-recognized measurement of energy, rather than in terms of “barrels of oil equivalent.” What this does is level the playing field by treating all forms of energy, including renewables, as essentially interchangeable.

Danielle Fugere, As You Sow’s president and chief counsel, pleased with the SEC ruling, said: “Exxon must allow shareholders to vote on this first step on the path toward clean energy. Broad support will give management the latitude to develop a diverse and profitable low-carbon business plan, while maintaining 100 percent BTU energy replacements.”

As You Sow also filed a petition with the SEC to change this metric for the entire industry.

EnergyAs You SowMarch 28, 2016Danielle Fugere, climate change

Are You Eating Toxic Chocolate? Lead Found in Trader Joe’s, Hershey’s and Other Chocolates

Testing commissioned by As You Sow, and conducted at independent laboratories, indicates that the chocolate products contain lead and/or cadmium, and they fail to provide the legally required warning to consumers.

“Lead exposure is associated with neurological impairment, such as learning disabilities and decreased IQ, even at very low levels. In fact, there is no safe level of lead for children," said Eleanne van Vliet, MPH, As You Sow's environmental health consultant.

As You Sow has filed legal notices against chocolate manufacturers, including Trader Joe's, Hershey's, Green and Black's, Lindt, Whole Foods, Kroger, Godiva, See's Candies, Mars, Theo Chocolate, Equal Exchange, Ghirardelli, Earth Circle Organics and more, for failure to warn of lead and/or cadmium in their chocolate products.

Recent revelations of lead contamination in water in Flint, Michigan raised awareness that lead is irrefutably linked to neurological impacts in children. Since 1992, As You Sow has led enforcement actions resulting in removal of lead from children's jewelry and formaldehyde from portable classrooms.

“Lead and cadmium accumulate in the body, so avoiding exposure is important, especially for children," explained Danielle Fugere, As You Sow president. “Our goal is to work with chocolate manufacturers to find ways to avoid these metals in their products."

Environmental HealthAs You SowMarch 26, 2016Danielle Fugere, Eleanne van Vliet

SEC Forces Exxon to Bring Climate-Friendly Accounting to Shareholder Vote

“We are pleased the SEC sided with shareholders concerned with climate risk," said Danielle Fugere, As You Sow's president and chief counsel. “Exxon must allow shareholders to vote on this first step on the path toward clean energy. Broad support will give management the latitude to develop a diverse and profitable low carbon business plan, while maintaining 100 percent BTU energy replacements."

In response to Exxon's SEC bid to stop the resolution from being voted on by shareholders, As You Sow successfully argued that, “... in a rapidly decarbonizing economy, fossil fuel companies must develop climate change-responsive business models" and one possible path is to transition into energy companies not dependent on carbon intense, climate damaging commodities.

Exxon currently accounts for its energy assets in “barrels of oil equivalent." As You Sow noted in its SEC reply that this accounting measure discourages a low carbon transition by linking the calculation of a company's assets, and therefore its value, to carbon based-metrics.

As You Sow is simultaneously filing a petition with the SEC to change its reporting requirements to an energy neutral metric, which will free the oil industry as a whole from oil-dependent financial valuation.

EnergyAs You SowMarch 25, 2016climate change, Danielle Fugere

New Shareholder Resolution Incentivizing Big Oil's Transition to Clean Energy, Wins at SEC

Shareholder Advocate, As You Sow, Defeats Exxon on Push for Climate-Friendly Accounting

Exxon currently accounts for its energy assets in "barrels of oil equivalent." As You Sow noted in its SEC reply, that this accounting measure discourages a low carbon transition by linking the calculation of a company's assets, and therefore its value, to carbon based-metrics. The resolution proposes reporting company energy resources neutrally, by category, so that all resources – including solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, and other renewables -- will be accounted for as BTUs and valued. This metric decouples Exxon and its shareholders from oil's declining profitability, its escalating climate damage, and Exxon's decreasing ability to economically replace its oil reserves.

As You Sow is simultaneously filing a petition with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to change its reporting requirements to an energy neutral metric, which will free the oil industry as a whole from oil-dependent financial valuation.

EnergyAs You SowMarch 25, 2016climate change

Is there lead in your chocolate?

As You Sow, a California-based consumer advocacy group, believes that some chocolate has more lead than necessary. An updated survey released by the group this week found levels of lead in chocolate at nine times the daily amount that California considers safe to avoid reproductive harm. In addition, the group also found cadmium up to seven times the state's maximum daily exposure.

The group had multiple samples of 50 different cocoa products analyzed by an independent lab and found more than half contained lead and cadmium levels above the state's limits, which are more strict than federal guidelines. As You Sow won't disclose the exact amounts of metals found in the products, in hopes of working directly with the manufacturers to help target sources of these metals, it said.

"Our goal is to work with chocolate manufacturers to find ways to avoid these metals in their products," said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow.

Eleanne Van Vliet, a consultant on testing for As You Sow, said that lead and cadmium can enter the products a variety of ways.

"It depends on the growing, processing, manufacturing, shipping. So there are a few possible sources, from our research," she said. "We would really like to have the chocolate industry come together and determine the sources."

She says consumer groups and advocates like As You Sow have become more powerful and political with the help of social media. Last March, As You Sow was active in helping remove titanium dioxide nanoparticles from Dunkin Donuts' powdered sugar. Recently, Mars, the maker of M&M's and Snickers, announced that it will begin to include genetically modified food labeling on its products in order to comply with a 2014 Vermont law that requires food with genetically modified products to be labeled.

Environmental HealthAs You SowMarch 25, 2016Eleanne van Vliet, Danielle Fugere

Paul Hodgson: Proxy Preview 2017 -‐ Shareholder resolutions in a time of Trump

As with last year’s Proxy Preview report, the release of this year’s Proxy Preview 2017 was accompanied by a webinar. The speakers were report authors Heidi Welsh from Si2 and Michael Passoff of Proxy Impact, along with Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management and Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow.

As You SowMarch 10, 2016Proxy Preview, Andrew Behar

The Power of a Shareholder Proxy

But ordinary investors are also shifting corporate strategy, especially with regard to sustainability practices involving clean energy, climate change and ethical labor. And they're getting results. In 2011, individual investors tagged onto a proposal by the social and environmental advocacy organization As You Sow to convince McDonald’s to replace its polystyrene foam beverage cups with more eco-friendly paper containers.

The easiest way for individual investors to make an impact is to use their proxy vote to support and amplify proposals already put forward by other investors. If you owned stock in Abbott Laboratories last year, for example, you might have wanted to add your vote to As You Sow’s resolution to offer U.S. consumers GMO-free baby formula. If you own stock in Chesapeake Energy, you might want to support the resolution proposed by the Connecticut Office of the State Treasurer to disclose the company’s spending on direct and indirect lobbying.

Environmental and social topics represented the largest number of shareholder proposals submitted in 2015. A record-breaking 433 social and environmental shareholder resolutions were filed in 2015, according to ProxyPreview, a free online report generated by corporate responsibility organizations As You Sow, Sustainable Investments Institute, and Proxy Impact.

A big block of stock isn't necessary to shift company policy, says Andrew Behar, chief executive of As You Sow.

As You SowFebruary 19, 2016Proxy Preview

Overpaid CEOs Are Being Supported by Mutual Funds

Mutual funds—professionally managed pools of money from general investors like adults saving for retirement—hold 25% of U.S. equities, according to As You Sow. Public pension funds, another large corporate shareholder, were more likely to vote against pay packages. California pension giant CalPERS, for example, increased its dissenting votes from 30% last year to 47% in 2015, the report said.

“The 100 most overpaid CEOs deserve more scrutiny than they are getting today from mutual funds and pension funds,” As Your Sow’s lead report author Rosanna Landis Weaver said in a statement. “As You Sow believes that now is the time for shareholders, particularly those with fiduciary responsibilities, to become more engaged in their analysis of executive pay and those who award these packages.”

CEO PayAs You SowFebruary 18, 2016Rosanna Landis Weaver

Investor scorecard illustrates rising importance of transparency

And they’re grading just how transparent operators are about those operations. As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management and the Investor Environmental Health Network in December issued its third “Disclosing the Facts” scorecard ranking the 30 largest oil and gas companies using hydraulic fracturing.

EnergyAs You SowFebruary 11, 2016Hydraulic Fracturing, climate change

These 3 Women Attend Monsanto's Annual Shareholder Meeting Demanding Answers

Anne Temple, mother and midwest leader of Moms Across America representing John Harrington of Harrington Investments, went to the meeting with Rachel Parent, 16-year-old and founder of Kids Right to Know from Canada who representing Moms Across America, and Beth Savitt, grandmother and president of the Shaka Movement of Maui representing and As You Sow.

Environmental HealthAs You SowFebruary 2, 2016Antibiotics and Factory Farms, G, GMOs

Adjectives for shareholder advocates? How about strategic, impactful

I’ll start by setting the record straight on the statistics Langert cites. He claims that As You Sow filed eight shareholder resolutions in 2015, none breaking 4 percent support and none resulting in a withdrawal. In fact, we filed or co-filed 35 resolutions in 2015, with average votes exceeding 25 percent, a strong outcome for environmentally focused shareholder resolutions.

For those resolutions where As You Sow was the lead filer, shares voted in support were valued at over $183 billion. We successfully negotiated withdrawals at Costco, Dunkin’ Brands Group and General Mills; As You Sow has a strong record of coming to agreements with companies that lead to withdrawal of shareholder resolutions. This information is readily available on our website.

Langert drew his information from the CERES data base, which is not intended to be a comprehensive list of ESG proposals but as a listing of resolutions relating to climate and some sustainability issues. A comprehensive list of ESG filings is available annually from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and from Proxy Preview (a publication of As You Sow with partners Si2 and Proxy Impact).

We pride ourselves on having our facts and economic analysis completely accurate in these public documents. We know that corporate attorneys will be looking for any reason to ask the SEC to not allow the resolution to go to a vote. In fact, many companies challenge resolutions whether there is cause or not. Last year As You Sow defended eight such challenges at the SEC, winning seven.

Langert suggests that As You Sow’s filing at Abbott Labs on GMOs was a "wrong target." Yet with just a 6 percent vote, the company agreed to introduce a non-GMO version of its Similac infant formula, which is now on store shelves.

As You Sow’s innovative climate resolutions sometimes earn strong votes and sometimes earn lower votes, but always introduce important new concepts to investors. For example, last year we filed a groundbreaking resolution at Chevron in collaboration with Arjuna Capital, which earned a low vote, but introduced the idea that shareholder capital is being wasted by continuing to invest in high cost, high carbon reserves that are likely to be stranded.

Ideas are powerful and even low votes can change the narrative and shift attitudes and policy. Nearly every major shareholder-driven corporate change started with a novel resolution, which As You Sow is particularly well known for introducing. Resolutions that push the envelope can require time and investor education to resonate and build consensus; they highlight important areas of business risk and often see increased shareholder support in subsequent years, resulting in critical corporate changes.

Langert surely must appreciate how As You Sow recently helped his alma mater, McDonald’s, eliminate 770 million polystyrene coffee cups per year at 14,000 stores, as well as our leading role for more than three years in a coalition of investors that co-developed "Project Kaleidoscope: a collaborative and dynamic approach to code of conduct compliance" to solve labor issues related to production of McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys.

The goal of shareholder advocates is not a vote or a withdrawal. The goal is to put forth new ideas and to work with companies to make real changes in corporate policy and practice that last over the long term. I speak for As You Sow and for our colleagues when I say that we advocate diligently and fearlessly on behalf of shareholders based on science and sound corporate environmental and social responsibility considerations. Our actions are founded on long-term strategic thinking. We hope that those observing our activities will take a more nuanced look at the important work that we do. I invite Langert to work with us to understand the goals, approaches and impact of shareholder advocacy, eliminate the myths and bring forth a new era of greater innovation and collaboration between companies and their shareholder advocates.

Invest Your ValuesAndrew BeharJanuary 13, 2016Andrew Behar