Increasingly, it seems like it’s supporting expanding bottle deposit programs. But big beverage companies want any solution but that.
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The merchants of war who have shaped U.S. foreign policy since the end of WWII have a foothold so strong, the act of extracting ourselves from the war economy has become incredibly complex.
Oracle has been telling investors that because it did not hit certain goals related to its cloud computing business, none of its top four executives earned any chunk of the massive block of stock options they were granted last year.
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In a Fortune op-ed touting her company's use of recycled content and $55 million investment in recycling over the past 10 years, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi also recognized "that these efforts are simply not enough." Groups such as Greenpeace and As You Sow, were quick to release statements about why they don't believe this latest investment is enough either.
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According to The Star newspaper in Kenya, GE is reconsidering its investment in the Lamu coal plant, following a letter sent to the company by a group of 56 institutional and individual investors, as well as advocacy groups, As You Sow and Proxy Impact, calling on the company to reconsider its recent decision to acquire a 20 percent stake in the plant. Lamu is one of Kenya’s top tourist destinations and home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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A proposal by advocacy group As You Sow (Oakland, CA) was presented and voted on by shareholders in March asking Starbucks to phase out plastic straws. It received less than 30% support, but As You Sow considered it a victory.
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It’s estimated that more than 500 million plastic straws are used per day in the U.S. But that number could be about to plunge as big corporations like Starbucks (SBUX) start to eliminate them.
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“Starbucks taught the world how to drink coffee, and I believe that this commitment will help teach the world how to embrace sustainable business practices, starting with the plastic straw,” actor Adrian Grenier, Lonely Whale co-founder, said Monday.
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Some investment services firms are trying to address the problem by embracing what’s known as “gender lens investing.” The idea is to get investors to put their money into companies that advance gender equality.
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With Starbucks responsible for using an estimated 2 billion plastic straws annually, according to the nonprofit As You Sow, the company’s commitment to finding a way to reduce its reliance on them sends a strong signal to other businesses.
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Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, said on Monday that he was glad Starbucks had decided to do away with plastic straws. He added that public officials also need to improve composting programs to handle the increase in biodegradable straws Starbucks is proposing to use.
“A big systemic change needs to happen,” he said. “This kind of material wouldn’t break down in your backyard compost bin.”
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Weapon Free Funds breaks down the individual offerings from investment companies. The Equity Index 500 fund from T. Rowe Price, for instance, has 18 weapons stocks; its New Horizons fund has just three. The Health Sciences, Emerging Markets, and Global Technology funds have no weapons companies. Users can also pick their battles, as it were–filtering on all types of weapons makers or on just military weapons or just civilian firearms.
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A group of 25 investors managing more than $1 trillion in assets are demanding that Nestle SA, PepsiCo Inc., Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever NV reduce their use of plastic packaging, calling it environmentally damaging.
The initiative was organized by As You Sow, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy group that pushes companies to act responsibly.
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As You Sow is pleased to announce the launch of the Plastic Solutions Investor Alliance, an international coalition of investors that will engage publicly traded consumer goods companies on the threat posed by plastic waste and pollution. Twenty-five institutional investors from four countries with a combined $1 trillion of assets under management have signed a declarationciting plastic pollution as a clear corporate brand risk and pledging to interact with leading companies to find solutions through new corporate commitments, programs, and policies.
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Identifying the median worker is one of the most interesting bits of information the disclosure provides, according to Rosanna Landis Weaver of As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group that emphasizes environmental and social corporate responsibility issues.
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"Chevron has lagged behind its peers on implementing and disclosing methane best practices for too long. Shareholders today recognize Chevron's progress, but underscore the importance of demonstrating on-the-ground change on this important climate change issue," Ms. Fugere said.
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What we’re hearing: The methane resolution is likely to pass the 50% mark because similar votes have passed at other companies. Getting this support likely indicates company adoption of whatever the non-binding proposal calls for.
The other vote is unlikely to pass, according to Danielle Fugere, president of nonprofit As You Sow, which filed the resolution on behalf of some Chevron investors. This is in part because it’s going a step further and asking for strategy change.
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“It’s a warped economic system,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver, program manager of the CEO Pay Program at shareholder advocacy group As You Sow.
To be fair, the job is fraught with peril. Many of these media chiefs are navigating a rapidly changing world order, one in which movie attendance is slipping in popularity and cable cords are being cut. If that’s not enough, there’s a massive wave of consolidation afoot among the traditional media giants, as a way to compete in the direct-to-consumer space with streaming powerhouse Netflix.
“Looking back, it will be interesting to see whether or not the companies that managed all the changes the best were the ones with the highest-paid executives,” says Landis Weaver.
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Companies that might be tempted to see the current administration's behavior as an excuse to delay acting on climate risks should be cautious—administrations change, and the oil and gas industry in particular is built on investments that require weighting risks decades into the future, said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, a non-profit shareholder advocacy organization.
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MSCI also has carbon-footprint data, while As You Sow has a fossil-free screen for mutual funds but no carbon-data metric, says Christina Alfandary, managing director of ESG for Gamco Asset Management. “Some investors want to see this [expanded] carbon portfolio information,” she says. Now they can.
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