SRI/ESG Funds Accomplishments Through Shareowner Engagement



SRI/ESG Funds Accomplishments Through Shareowner Engagement

2013 Accord on Fire & Safety signed by retailers and apparel mfgrs.

Hershey committing to 100% sustainable cocoa harvesting by 2020.

in March 2013, Disney announced that Bangladesh had been removed from its “Permitted Sourcing Countries” list.

Shareholder resolutions have led ExxonMobil to stop contributing to groups who deny climate change and even publicly come out in favor of a carbon tax.

Specific recent work includes pressing a gas company to reduce the amount of fresh water used in hydraulic fracturing, convincing a leading supermarket chain to eliminate BPA (bisphenol A) from its bottles and pressing companies to refrain from political spending.

MacDonalds to stop using Styrofoam cups for coffee.

Last year, for instance, Green Century successfully worked with Starbucks*, the largest coffee chain in the world, to stop purchasing palm oil that contributes to deforestation, increased carbon emissions and loss of habitat for endangered species such as orangutans.

one of our recent victories was successfully convincing Kraft not to spend money to oppose I-522 in Washington, a ballot initiative that would require labeling of GMOs – Green Century

Unilever, Mondelez, and Ferrero Rocher have stepped up and pledged to develop traceable palm oil supply chains, in order to ensure purchased palm oil is coming from certified suppliers.

Sharing a Success Story - Regions Bank drops payday loan product after shareholder engagement effort led by Calvert Investments, Socially Responsible Investment Coalition and Northwest Responsible Investment Coalition (01/2014)

September 19, 2014: Following a letter coordinated by Green Century Capital Management and signed by institutional investors representing over $600bn in assets under management,[1] the world’s five largest growers of palm oil—Sime Darby, Asian Agri, IOI Corporation, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad, and Musim Mas—agreed today to halt the clearance of high carbon stock forests while they conduct a yearlong study aimed at defining the threshold for forest protection. The announcement comes at a critical time, as major companies like Kellogg’s and ConAgra that use palm oil are working to rapidly implement their recently announced ‘zero deforestation’ palm oil policies, and leaders from around the world are gathering in New York City next week to announce ambitious commitments to combat climate change. Over the past few months, Green Century has secured commitments from top palm oil consuming companies including Kellogg’s,* Smuckers,* and ConAgra* to only purchase palm oil from suppliers that adhere to ‘no deforestation’, as defined by no clearance of High Carbon Stock and High Conservation Value forests. Other companies that have recently adopted zero-deforestation palm oil commitments include several of the world’s top palm oil consumers such as Procter & Gamble,* Mondelez,* and Colgate-Palmolive. Responding to the demand from these companies, several of the world’s largest palm oil traders including Wilmar,* Golden Agri-Resources (GAR),* Bunge, and Cargill, which together trade over 60% of the world’s palm oil, have committed to ensuring zero deforestation across all of their supply chains.

Boston Common Asset Management worked with a $3 trillion coalition of investors to reform worker safety in the clothing supply chain after the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory. As a result, Adidas joined other companies in a binding commitment to the Bangladesh Accord on Building and Fire Safety. This both protects investment returns and creates lasting change for employees.

We have seen similar results in other sectors too. In pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline responded to investor pressure by re-thinking its business models to try to fit the healthcare needs of emerging and frontier markets, which has opened up new growth opportunities while providing more access to medicines to people in need.

This September Statoil ASA reacted to an investor engagement by shelving its multi-billion dollar oil sands project, Corner, which would have produced over 770m metrics tonnes of CO2 and might have put investor capital at risk.

As a result of Walden, Green Century and others efforts, companies controlling more than 50 percent of palm oil production globally have made commitments to address the climate, biodiversity, and human rights impacts of their palm oil production.

As You Sow: After a year-long development effort, the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) Performance Standard will address issues relevant to the production and stewardship of aluminium, from extraction of bauxite to the producers of commercial and consumer goods and the recycling of pre- and post-consumer aluminium scrap. The Standard focuses on eleven key issues: business integrity, policy and management, transparency, material stewardship, greenhouse gas emissions, emissions, effluents and waste, water, biodiversity, human rights, labour rights, and occupational health and safety.

• Hershey is adopting cocoa certified free of child labor ahead of schedule, protecting children throughout West Africa from horrible labor conditions

• General Mills removed GMOs from original Cheerios, which was quickly followed by Post removing GMOs from Grape Nuts;

• Apple banned benzene and n-hexane, two of the most toxic chemicals, from their final assembly factories;

• National Geographic adopted recycled fiber paper for their flagship publication, saving forests and reducing climate emissions;

• Chobani announced three new lines of organic yogurt and is working to get non-gmo feed for all the cows that make their yogurt;

• hired a sustainability director and promised to use renewable energy for their massive servers;

• Four major banks stopped issuing predatory payday lending loans that trapped American consumers in a cycle of debt.

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