The proposal was brought about by As You Sow, a group that promotes corporate accountability on the environment, on behalf of the Gun Denhart Living Trust and other investors.
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The non-binding proposal submitted by activist group As You Sow on behalf of the Gun Denhart Living Trust and other investors received the support of 30 percent of votes cast, Sanderson Chief Financial Officer Mike Cockrell told Reuters.
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Patricia Jurewicz, director of the Responsible Sourcing Network and creator of initiative Yarn Ethically and Sustainably Sourced (YESS) working in spinning mills, said the cotton supply chain remained tainted despite initiatives to clean it up.
“There are improvements little by little and the most where brands get involved in production as they don’t want to be linked to abuse,” she said. “But there’s a long way to go”.
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Phasing out the use of polystyrene has been a priority of As You Sow's for years. Based on a 2011 shareholder resolution they encouraged McDonald's to try a pilot program that eventually resulted in the company making a full switch to paper in 2013. Though the company has yet to do this outside of the U.S. and Dunkin' Donuts hasn't followed up on a similar promise. Resolutions have also been filed with Amazon and Target, which mainly use the material for shipping.
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As You Sow’s release noted: “The shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow has been engaging the company for more than a year to make its packaging recyclable, focusing especially on multi-laminate plastic sachets and pouches used for shampoos in small packages marketed in Asia that cannot currently be recycled,” said As You Sow’s release. “Much of this packaging is discarded and ends up polluting waterways in developing Asian countries due to the lack of solid waste management systems.”
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RBI has been on the receiving end of pressure from major investors and Oakland-based shareholder advocacy group As You Sow to curb the use of medically important antibiotics in their livestock supply chains.
Noting McDonald’s and other companies have already “taken action” on antibiotics, As You Sow in 2016 put forward a shareholder resolution for RBI to adopt an “enterprise-wide” policy on phasing out use of antibiotics in its meat supply chains for any reasons other than therapeutic use or “non-routine disease control.”
As You Sow in March agreed to withdraw the resolution, after RBI agreed to “make disclosures” on its website in calendar 2016 about its policies on antibiotic use in livestock, covering its beef, pork and poultry supply chains.
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Austin Wilson, environmental health program manager for As You Sow, said the company’s new plan represented progress. Still, he said it was “disappointing, since it is weaker than the standards set in the last year or two by Tyson, McDonald’s and Wendy’s”.
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More than 70 percent of oil and gas companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing improved their scores on how they report policies to reduce risks from fracking, according to the fourth annualscorecard released Dec. 14 by investor groups As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management and Investor Environmental Health Network.
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One of the earliest examples was a Catholic priest who used his stockholder prerogative to force R.J. Reynolds to stop aiming its “Joe Camel” advertising at kids. Then there was the activist group As You Sow, which prompted McDonald’s to stop using plastic foam cups for the 775 billion drinks sold per year. Considering that the ocean’s plastic will weigh more than the fish by 2050, this seems like a sensible step — but the kind of step corporations ruled by increasing quarterly profits are not inclined to take on their own.
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Vanguard’s apparent support for the powers that be extends to compensation. According to an analysis from shareholder rights group As You Sow, Vanguard and BlackRock were the most likely of the 25 largest mutual fund families to support pay packages of highly paid CEOs—each voting in favor 97% of the time, vs. 78% for the industry overall. Vanguard, though, says it prefers to address CEO pay by influencing board composition. In the past year, it voted against 396 directors in the U.S. who served on compensation committees.
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Don’t assume mutual funds meet this standard just because they’re designated as “socially responsible.” Instead, run the funds through an online tool created by As You Sow, a group that presses for corporate responsibility. The tool makes it easy to spot fossil-fuel exposure and identify greener options.
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"Despite what the administration may or may not do, I really believe that corporations understand the risks posed by climate change," said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, a California nonprofit campaign group. It sponsored 18 climate-related shareholder resolutions in 2016 and expects to file a bigger number next year.
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The sisters are part of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which along with ShareAction, Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) Initiative and As You Sow, also are targeting companies such as Sanderson Farms (SAFM.O) and Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N) with similar campaigns aimed at preserving the efficacy of antibiotics.
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That brings us back to the carbon that may be hiding in your mutual fund or 401(k). One of the pioneers in the divest/reinvest movement is the nonprofit foundation As You Sow, which works with shareholders to improve corporate accountability. It has developed a tool that finds the carbon in thousands of the most common mutual funds and retirement plans. It does the detective work instantly and cost-free with up-to-date data.
Using 401(k) retirement plans as an example, As You Sow’s explains “those funds can invest in a wide array of securities, and it’s not always easy for investors to investigate what’s inside the funds they own. You can spend hours poring over mutual fund prospectuses, and still not fully grasp everything your 401(k) is invested in. Your retirement money may be invested in economically and morally risky fossil fuel companies.”
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“If what you read about stranded assets is true, it’s a potentially serious problem for regular, middle-class people who aren’t necessarily paying attention,” says Cari Rudd, a Washington DC-based communications consultant, who does social media work for Divest-Invest and sits on the board of As You Sow, an Oakland, California-based nonprofit that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy.
For example, As You Sow’s Fossil Free Funds, which uses data from Morningstar, is a free online tool that allows investors to type in the name or ticker of a fund and see what percentage is invested in fossil fuels. Earlier this month, the organization expanded Fossil Free Funds to include a feature that shows each fund’s carbon footprint and which companies are the main contributors. For 401k participants who don’t have direct control of selecting the funds offered in their retirement plan, As You Sow also provides advice on how to speak to their employers about expanding their company’s plan to include low-carbon options.
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The ranking of 1,200 UK funds by As You Sow, a non-profit organisation, comes as concerns mount that investors could suffer big losses if companies with large carbon footprints are negatively affected by attempts to tackle climate change.
Two funds from Standard Life Investments, the Scottish asset manager, and a fund from Schroders, the UK’s largest listed asset manager, ranked among the five products with the largest carbon footprint, according to As You Sow.
The As You Sow research covered 8,500 investment products globally. Besides allowing investors to find out if they are exposed to climate change risks, it also revealed huge differences in how exposed the UK’s largest funds are to polluting industries.
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"They're being reactive," said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow. They have been trying for years to get Dunkin' Donuts to get rid of their foam cups. "They're in a comfortable spot because they've made the commitment, and now they say they're just trying the get the logistics right."
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Shareholders opposing the pay program at Mylan’s June 24 annual meeting included BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest investment manager, according to Fund Votes, a company that tracks proxy voting. That’s an unusual move: BlackRock and Vanguard Group Inc., which are among the largest shareholders at most big U.S. companies, vote with boards on executive pay 97 percent of the time, according to As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group.
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“We come from the shareholder-advocacy perspective. We saw a need for transparency,” says Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, a nonprofit organization promoting corporate responsibility. As You Sow partnered with global environmentalist network Friends of the Earth to launch the database, which was inspired by a similar tool, focused on fossil fuels, designed by As You Sow in 2015.
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