Blog Archives

As You Sow Statement on Dunkin’ Brands Phase out of Foam Cups

Oakland, CA – February 7, 2018 – Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, made the following statement: As You Sow congratulates Dunkin’ Brands today for choosing a replacement material for its polystyrene foam … MORE >

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As You Sow Challenges Chevron to Take Immediate Action on Methane Emissions

Oakland, CA – In a new shareholder resolution, As You Sow and Dominican Sisters of Hope, Congregation of St. Joseph, Adrian Dominican Sisters, and Dignity Health are calling upon Chevron to report to shareholders on … MORE >

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As You Sow Statement on McDonald’s Recycling Goal Announcement

As You Sow congratulates McDonald’s Corp. on its industry-leading goal announced today to recycle all post-consumer packaging in all its restaurants by 2025. This action follows several years of dialogue by As You Sow with … MORE >

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McDonalds’s Promises to Eliminate Foam Packaging by 2019 in Response to As You Sow Challenge

Oakland, CA, January 10, 2018 – In December, shareholder advocacy group As You Sow filed for 2018  resolution with McDonald’s Corp., urging the company to assess the environmental impact of its use of harmful polystyrene in beverage cups … MORE >

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RELEASE: As You Sow Challenges McDonald’s on Environmentally Hazardous Polystyrene Use

Oakland, CA – Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow has re-filed for 2018 a resolution with McDonald’s Corp., urging the company to assess the environmental impact of its use of harmful polystyrene in beverage cups … MORE >

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RELEASE: Oil & gas companies begin plugging methane leaks to retain social license to operate

Boston, MA – Dec. 14, 2017 – Today, As You Sow, Boston Common Asset Management, and The Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) released a 2017 special edition of the Disclosing the Facts (DTF) scorecard. While … MORE >

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RELEASE: Investors Challenge FirstEnergy to Evaluate Carbon Asset Risks Associated With Climate Change

Oakland, CA – Continuing the momentum from last year’s majority votes requesting analysis of how energy companies will succeed in an increasingly low carbon economy, investors filed a shareholder proposal today with FirstEnergy, whose Midwest … MORE >

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Funds That Can Put Your Investments on a Low-Carbon Diet

If you care about climate change, your money can help shrink your carbon footprint. You can buy appliances that are more energy efficient or a hybrid or electric car — or, better yet, a bike. … MORE >

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Investors Demand Action from Hollywood on Smoking in Youth-Rated Films to Save 1,000,000 lives

Oakland, CALIF – October 3, 2017 – A new website tracking mutual fund investments in companies responsible for kid’s initiation to tobacco was released today by non-profit environmental health watchdog As You Sow. With tobacco-related … MORE >

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Seven Indian companies among world’s top 200 green energy firms

Seven Indian companies have made it to the latest Clean200 list, featuring the world’s largest publicly traded companies making significant revenue from clean energy. The Carbon Clean200 report, compiled by non-profit organisation As You Sow … MORE >

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Wells Fargo execs get bigger stock awards instead of bonuses

Top executives at Wells Fargo, including new Chief Executive Tim Sloan, are set to get significantly larger stock awards for 2016, the same year the bank’s fake-accounts scandal came to light. Earlier this month, the … MORE >

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Investors renew push to get Sanderson Farms to cut antibiotic use

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sanderson Farms Inc shareholders have filed another proposal aimed at convincing the third-largest U.S. poultry producer to stop giving medically important antibiotics to healthy chickens for disease prevention.

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The Bad News for Monsanto Keeps Getting Worse

The bad news for Monsanto keeps getting worse. In newly published internal Monsanto emails, a company scientist writes that “You cannot say that Roundup is not a carcinogen … we have not done the necessary testing on the … MORE >

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An improbable ocean voyage to end plastic waste

The following is an edited excerpt from “Junk Raft: An Ocean Voyage and a Rising Tide of Activism to Fight Plastic Pollution” by Markus Eriksen (Beacon Press, 2017). Reprinted with permission from Beacon Press.

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Exxon, Chevron Face Judgment Day at Upcoming Shareholder Meeting

In preparation for their annual meetings on May 31, both Chevron and ExxonMobil opposed every climate-related resolution put forth by their shareholders. In a previous post, I wrote that Chevron continues to downplay climate risks … MORE >

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Can activist investors encourage better carpet recycling?

The challenges on the road to a circular economy are evident within the carpet industry. The U.S. sector produces about 12 billion square feet of carpet and rugs per year. Around 91 percent of end-of-life … MORE >

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Buzzing stock: Suzlon Energy spikes on entry into Clean200 list and credit rating upgradation

Suzlon Energy has made it to the latest Clean200 list, featuring the world’s largest publicly traded companies making significant revenue from clean energy. Six other Indian companies have also managed to make it to the … MORE >

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Column: Method soap’s Pullman factory can benefit S.C. Johnson – if cost cutting doesn’t get in the way

S.C. Johnson, the maker of Raid, Pledge and other household goods, wants to buy soap-maker Method and its South Side factory. That makes me wonder: If successful, what type of local corporate citizen will the … MORE >

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The unusual way KB Home punished its CEO for screaming profanities at Kathy Griffin

If the offense is embarrassing but something from the past — like the years-old graphic emails Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel sent as an undergrad fraternity bro — a mea culpa may suffice. If it’s disturbing … MORE >

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Release-Sanderson-Farms-Antibiotics

Oakland, CA – September 13, 2017 – Investors filed a shareholder proposal today with Sanderson Farms, the third-largest U.S. poultry producer, and announced an open letter from groups worth $46  billion. The proposal is led … MORE >

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RELEASE: Updated Clean200 List From As You Show and Corporate Knights Shows New Energy Bests Old Energy Regardless of Trump

OAKLAND, CA – August 15, 2017 –  Today, As You Sow and Corporate Knights released the third update of the Carbon Clean 200TM (Clean200TM), a list of the 200 largest publicly traded companies making significant … MORE >

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McDonald’s brings foam cups back to Chicago despite shareholder pressure

July 5, 2017 –  Some local McDonald’s restaurants are throwing it back to the old days — not with a new menu item, but with plastic foam cups. McDonald’s says some Chicago-area restaurants are using foam cups … MORE >

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Impact Investing And The O’Reilly Factor

May 1, 2017 – Do you want your investing or your purchasing decisions to have a social impact? Perhaps you have some cause to promote like the environment or gender equity? In this essay I … MORE >

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Vanguard fails to exert influence over high pay

May 6, 2017 – If you wanted to draw up a list of the asset management companies with the best public image, Vanguard would probably come near the top. The Pennsylvania-based fund house has built … MORE >

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Ahead of Exxon’s annual meeting, shareholders and investors push for climate action

BOSTON (Reuters) – Shareholder activists focused on climate issues are gaining traction in their push to have large energy companies and utilities take account of the impact rising global temperatures could have on their businesses.

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RELEASE: As You Sow Commends Restaurant Brands’ New Policy Restricting Antibiotic Use

Oakland, CA – June 22, 2017 – Restaurant Brands International (RBI) announced today its decision to purchase only chicken raised without antibiotics important to human medicine by the end of 2018, a major sustainability milestone … MORE >

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US companies defy investors with switch to online annual meetings

Ford says it will join life of ‘forward-looking’ groups ending in-person event. The number of US companies scrapping the traditional annual shareholder meeting and hosting the event online has surged in the past 18 months, in defiance … MORE >

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Trump Critics on Climate Policy Hope Executives Can Sway Him

Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric’s chief executive, says climate change is real, a position at odds with the Trump administration. As a member of a White House manufacturing advisory council, he also has President Trump’s … MORE >

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RELEASE: As You Sow Report: Glyphosate Poses Threat to Human Health and the Food System

Oakland, CA – June 6, 2017 – Rising use of glyphosate, the world’s most heavily applied herbicide, is putting the population at risk of significant health problems, according to a report released today by the … MORE >

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RELEASE: As You Sow Earns Strong Shareholder Support in Climate-Related Fugitive Methane Proposal

HOUSTON, TX – May 31, 2017 – In a very strong 38% vote at the ExxonMobil annual meeting today, shareholders demanded that Exxon take strong and innovative action on methane leaks. Unaddressed methane releases from … MORE >

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RELEASE: High Investor Support for As You Sow, Arjuna Capital’s Resolution for Carbon Transition Planning, Maintains Shareholder Sweep on Carbon-Related Proposals

Midland, Texas – May 31, 2017 – A first of its kind shareholder proposal calling for carbon transition planning earned a strong vote today in the midst of a proxy season where climate change proposals … MORE >

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RELEASE: Nearly one-third of McDonald’s shareholders support As You Sow proposal to phase out polystyrene foam

Oak Brook, IL – May 25, 2017 – 31% of McDonald’s Corp. shareholders supported a proposal from As You Sow asking the company to phase out harmful expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam packaging globally, according to … MORE >

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RELEASE: Investors Send Strong Signal to Southern Company: Align Operations with Low-Carbon Future

Oakland, CA – May 24, 2017 – In an important climate-related vote today, 46% of its shareholders asked The Southern Company (SO) to report on how it plans to align its business operations with a 2 … MORE >

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Shareholders’ Rights Under Attack: Resolutions Could Be Limited to Billionaires

April 27, 2017-HuffPost-Shareholders’ rights to engage with management of companies they own are under fierce attack. If passed, a proposed House Bill would allow only the largest shareholders to file shareholder resolutions. Currently, resolutions provide … MORE >

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RELEASE: As You Sow’s 2 Degree Climate Resolution Receives 42% Vote at FirstEnergy

Oakland, CA – May 17, 2017 – A resolution filed by shareholder advocate group As You Sow calling on major utility FirstEnergy to disclose a strategy for limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 … MORE >

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RELEASE: $11 Trillion in Fund Holdings Screened for 50 Largest Coal-Fired Utilities

Oakland, CA – April 24, 2017 – Fossil Free Funds and Macroclimate® have combined forces to expand the FossilFreeFunds.org platform with brand new research, highlighting investments in 50 of the largest, most carbon-intensive coal-fired utilities. This new addition … MORE >

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Many governance experts believe the main driver is the movement toward passive investment

April 7, 2017-IR Magazine- In corporate governance, change is more often evolutionary than revolutionary. But this year institutional investors are helping to create a foundational shift that is catapulting environmental and social (E&S) issues into … MORE >

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Target says it will phase out polystyrene packaging

Recycling today-April 7, 2017–  Minneapolis-based retailer Target Corp. has “agreed to engage” with its supply chain regarding phasing out polystyrene foam packaging from its online retailing operations, according to the Oakland, California-based nonprofit organization As You Sow.

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Meet… Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President, As You Sow

SRI Connect- April 18, 2017- Meet… Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President, As You Sow

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As KFC changes policy, Yum shareholders pull proposal on cutting antibiotics

Reuters-April 17, 2017-Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N) investors said they have withdrawn a shareholder proposal requesting that the company phase out harmful antibiotic use in its meat supply, after Yum’s KFC restaurant chain made public a … MORE >

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