Danielle Fugere: Avoiding the fossil fuel cliff
Danielle Fugere: Avoiding the fossil fuel cliff

As You Sow’s Carbon Asset Transition, or “CAT” resolution, requesting that oil companies’ energy resources be accounted for, by category, in resource-neutral energy units as well as barrels of oil, could have profound implications for the future. It allows oil and gas companies to decouple their asset base from a sole focus on fossil fuel reserves and incentivizes their transition into becoming energy companies ready to thrive in a low carbon economy.

Recognizing that an orderly transition to a clean energy future must be facilitated, As You Sow’s Carbon Asset Transition proposal is a crucial first step: by decoupling traditional oil and gas company value from a sole focus on carbon-based asset replacement, companies will have an opportunity and incentive to become truly diversified energy companies providing large-scale clean energy. In addition to directly engaging companies with this resolution and working with other energy companies on voluntarily reporting in BTUs, As You Sow will also file a petition with the SEC. The petition will request the SEC add an energy-neutral metric to its current reporting requirement for oil and gas companies. Such a change would help free these companies from their oilcentric focus, which made sense historically but whose time is now past.

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EnergyAs You SowProxy Preview, climate change
Executive pay ‘rubber stamping’ rife
Executive pay ‘rubber stamping’ rife

A report published in February by As You Sow, a US non-profit group, reinforced the view that investors do not want to take a tough stance on executive pay.

As You Sow highlighted BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and Vanguard, the second largest, as two of the fund companies most likely to approve “excessive compensation for CEOs” routinely.

“The 100 most overpaid CEOs deserve more scrutiny than they are getting today from mutual funds and pension funds,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver, corporate pay expert at As You Sow.

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CEO PayAs You SowRosanna Landis Weaver
CA Philanthropist Keeps BlackRock On Defensive With CEO Pay Shareholder Vote
CA Philanthropist Keeps BlackRock On Defensive With CEO Pay Shareholder Vote

A 2016 report from As You Sow, an organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, identified BlackRock’s CEO, Laurence D. Fink, as the 51st most overpaid CEO in the S&P. Fink’s pay was raised 8 percent last year (to $25.8 million a year), nearly three times the 2.7 percent profit posted by the company — and at a time when BlackRock shares fell nearly 5 percent in value during the year.

That, As You Sow’s executive compensation analyst Rosanna Landis Weaver told Capital & Main, means that “BlackRock is a complete outlier in terms of votes. … Of the largest money managers, funds that have a lot of assets, Fidelity voted against [CEO pay packages] 21 percent; American Funds voted against 32 percent; Schwaab voted against 35 percent; and BlackRock voted against 3 percent from the ones that we looked at.”

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CEO PayAs You SowRosanna Landis Weaver
Here’s Why We Can’t Rely on Shareholders to Fix CEO Pay
Here’s Why We Can’t Rely on Shareholders to Fix CEO Pay

Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow has tracked mutual fund voting at the 100 firms whose CEOs the group has deemed “most overpaid,” based on various performance indicators. Although these firms all claim to care about carefully aligning the interests of CEOs and shareholders, As You Sow found 10 funds that rubber stamp pay packages at phenomenal rates. The giant Vanguard mutual-fund family, for example, gave bloated CEO pay packages the thumbs up 97 percent of the time last year. The firm has also come under fire for its North Korean Parliament–style voting on another set of inequality-related shareholder proposals, those that ask corporations to disclose their political spending.

The data from As You Sow raise a deeper question: In the end, can we really rely on shareholders to fix our broken CEO pay system?

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CEO PayAs You Sow
Big Pharma Under Pressure to Pay For Drug Take-Back Programs
Big Pharma Under Pressure to Pay For Drug Take-Back Programs

The pressure on pharma is not likely to die down. Recently, a non-profit “As You Sow” launched a campaign to push pharma companies to pay for take-back programs. The nonprofit sent a letter to the heads of ten pharmaceutical firms asking the companies to issue policy statements, notes STAT. It also placed shareholder resolutions calling on three drug makers to review their policies on take-back programs.

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Waste, Circular EconomyAs You SowPharmaceutical Waste
Profits are down at ExxonMobil, but don’t cry for CEO Rex Tillerson
Profits are down at ExxonMobil, but don’t cry for CEO Rex Tillerson

“It’s outrageous. This is a man who has helped drive not only a company but maybe the world over a cliff,” said Rosanna Landis Weaver, an executive compensation specialist with As You Sow, a group that promotes social and environmental corporate responsibility and who believes Exxon should move into renewable energy. She said his compensation cut was “a largely symbolic reduction on a package that was exorbitant.”

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CEO PayAs You SowRosanna Landis Weaver
Non-profit urges big pharma to take responsibility for drug take back programs
Non-profit urges big pharma to take responsibility for drug take back programs

As You Sow recently sent a letter to the heads of ten pharmaceutical firms on behalf of the funds asking the companies to issue policy statements on drug take back programs. These programs are designed to reduce environmental contamination and lower the risk of prescription drug abuse from unused drugs.

The non-profit As You Sow is building on this local interest and hopes to force companies to address the disposal problem. In its letter, the group asks for companies to develop policies on the take back of unused drugs.

In addition, As You Sow has proposed shareholder resolutions requiring that Merck, Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie pay for the take-back programs. The reception from the three companies has been relatively cold, with all three drugmakers recommending shareholders vote against the proposals, according to Stat.

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Waste, Circular EconomyAs You SowPharmaceutical Waste
Activists call for Oreo, Chips Ahoy packaging to be recyclable
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.

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Waste, Circular EconomyAs You SowConsumer Packaging, Conrad MacKerron, Danielle Fugere
SEC Overrides ExxonMobil Efforts to Stifle Shareholder Activism on Climate
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.

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EnergyAs You SowDanielle Fugere, climate change
Are You Eating Toxic Chocolate? Lead Found in Trader Joe’s, Hershey’s and Other Chocolates
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."

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Environmental HealthAs You SowDanielle Fugere, Eleanne van Vliet
SEC Forces Exxon to Bring Climate-Friendly Accounting to Shareholder Vote
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.

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EnergyAs You Sowclimate change, Danielle Fugere
New Shareholder Resolution Incentivizing Big Oil's Transition to Clean Energy, Wins at SEC
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.

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EnergyAs You Sowclimate change
Is there lead in your chocolate?
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.

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    Environmental HealthAs You SowEleanne van Vliet, Danielle Fugere
    The Power of a Shareholder Proxy
    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.

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    As You SowProxy Preview
    Overpaid CEOs Are Being Supported by Mutual Funds
    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.”

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    CEO PayAs You SowRosanna Landis Weaver