Shareholders Urge Adobe to Confront Growing Climate Risk to Employee’s Retirement Savings
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Shareholder proposal calls on Adobe to report how it is protecting workers' retirement savings from climate portfolio risk
MEDIA CONTACT: Ryon Harms, [email protected], 310.730.9407
EL CERRITO, CA—April 14, 2026 — When Adobe (NYSE: ADBE) shareholders gather for their annual meeting this week, one item on the ballot asks a pointed question: is the company doing enough to shield its employees’ retirement savings from mounting climate-related financial risk? The shareholder resolution filed by shareholder representative As You Sow calls on Adobe to assess and disclose how its 401(k) plan investments in high-carbon companies threatens employees’ life savings, particularly younger employees’ whose retirement dates are more than a decade out.
The risk underlying the resolution is substantial. As You Sow's analysis found that Adobe’s 401(k) plan holds as much as $253 million in high-carbon industry investments, as well as exposure to deforestation-linked agricultural supply chains totaling over $13 million. For the Adobe employee contributing to their 401(k) each paycheck, these impacts are already materializing and have a direct and compounding cost.
A joint study published in April 2024 by the University of Waterloo and As You Sow calculated that Adobe 401(k) participants could have earned an estimated $129 million in additional returns if Adobe had moved to decarbonize its retirement plan holdings over the preceding decade. For workers who will remain invested for another two or three decades, the compounding cost of continued inaction could be far greater based on estimates of forestalled GDP growth associated with climate change or even declining GDP nearer 2050.
The urgency of addressing this material financial risk is not just a matter of good corporate stewardship. In March 2026, a former Cushman & Wakefield employee brought the first-ever class-action ERISA lawsuit alleging that the company breached its fiduciary duties by allowing workers' 401(k) savings to remain exposed to material climate-related, financial risks.
“As You Sow has spent years warning plan sponsors that climate exposure in retirement plans carries real fiduciary consequence," said Andrew Behar, Chief Executive Officer of As You Sow. "The Cushman & Wakefield litigation only underscores that risk. Companies which have not yet acted are running out of time to do so on their own terms."
This resolution asks Adobe to take a step that is both modest in scope and significant in signal: produce a report on how it is evaluating and mitigating climate-related financial risk in its retirement plan. “For a company that has made sustainability a cornerstone of how it operates, bringing that same discipline to its retirement plan is not a stretch. It’s the next logical step,” said Danielle Fugere, President of As You Sow.
As You Sow filed a similar proposal this year at Broadcom. It asks the company to examine and report on climate risk exposure within its retirement plan. Broadcom's response was to keep the proposal off the ballot altogether, a decision that sidesteps accountability rather than addressing it.
As You Sow publishes monthly report cards rating retirement plans and mutual funds as part of its Invest Your Values initiative.
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ABOUT AS YOU SOW
As You Sow is the nation’s leading shareholder representative, with a 30-year track record promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility. Its focus areas include climate change, ocean plastics, toxins in the food system, the Rights of Nature, racial justice, and workplace diversity. Click here to view As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.