We need to get real on climate change. The world is now awash in grand promises and ambitions to deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050, in line with a 1.5C global warming cap; but these promises are not being backed by hard capital commitments. Turning the spotlight on the hidden world of accounting can help.
Read moreHow Big Banks Put Climate and Investors at Risk
To avoid impending climate catastrophe, vast investment must be diverted from fossil fuel-based power generation, industrial processes, transport, and land use to carbon-free alternatives.
Read moreReducing Chemical Footprint Lessens Legal and Regulatory Risk
Investors have filed resolutions with Five Below, Dollar General, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Kroger to expand and improve chemical safety programs. This comes at a time when regulatory risk and consumer concern is rising.
Read moreClimate Targets - The Latest Trend in Corporate Greenwashing
Each year, investors express more interest in company action to combat climate change. In response, companies make highly publicized statements that they are aligned with the Paris Accord or have a net zero commitment to persuade investors, the SEC, and customers that their corporate practices are in line with keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Read moreInsuring Net-Zero Progress
Climate change is referred to by leading economists as the greatest market failure in human history, with potentially disruptive implications on the social well-being, economic development, and financial stability of current and future generations: conservative estimates see unabated climate change leading to global costs equivalent to losing in-between 5 to 20% of global gross domestic product (GDP) each year, now and forever.
Read moreNet Zero Asset Managers Initiative: Transparency and Accountability on Climate
In July 2021, ClearBridge Investments announced it had joined the industry-leading Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM), an international group of asset managers committed to supporting the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally by 2050. We are proud to be part of a community of over 200 asset management peers, representing over $50 trillion, in this commitment.
Read moreCarbon Offsets Are Not Emissions Reductions
As more companies announce net zero emissions by 2050 commitments, many are relying on carbon offsets to achieve these targets, rather than decarbonizing their own operations and value chain. This business-as-usual approach risks continuation of unabated carbon pollution from the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels.
Read moreShareholders Help Big-AG Build a Resilient Supply Chain
As food manufacturers begin to more widely acknowledge and address the material risk of climate change and biodiversity loss, they must also acknowledge the role pesticides play.
Read morePlastic Pollution - Holding Big Oil Accountable for Plastic Mismanagement
Plastics currently impose a lifecycle social cost at least ten times higher than their market price. While ubiquitous plastic waste dominates public perception, threats to the climate and health are mounting. Despite rising understanding of the broad landscape of risks facing the current fossil-fueled plastic economy, the oil and gas industry is betting on a world that uses more and more virgin plastics.
Read morePlastic Pollution: Pushing for Absolute Reductions and Refillables
In 2021, As You Sow shifted its focus on plastic pollution from asking companies to make plastic packaging more recyclable to using less plastic, with terrific results. Our proposals to 10 major consumer goods companies led five companies, including Target and Walmart, to agree to cut virgin plastic use by more than 700,000 tons by 2025.
Read moreSay on Climate Global Shareholder Coalition
The Say on Climate global shareholder initiative aims to move companies to develop net zero transition plans, adopt annual 5 percent GHG emissions reduction targets (aligned with Climate Action 100+ benchmarks), provide annual emissions disclosure, and give shareholders an annual vote. The annual advisory vote would be similar to votes on executive compensation, but it would be about implementation of a company’s climate transition plan.
Read moreScope 3 Climate Impacts Missing from Utility Net Zero Targets
Most utility companies are not including Scope 3 emissions from the corporate value chain in their net zero climate targets. Yet, emissions from customers’ use of natural gas for heat and other applications, purchased power emissions, and methane leakage from the production and distribution of natural gas can amount to as much as half of a utility’s total emissions.
Read morePositive Signs on the Road to Board Diversity
Board diversity is improving, but this is not the time to back down. Companies, shareholders, and the overall economy benefit when board oversight better reflects the marketplace and draws from the broadest possible talent pool.
Read moreBoards Face "NO" Votes Due to Lack of Climate Governance Practices
Investors increasingly are ready to hold board members of U.S. public companies accountable for failing to appropriately oversee their companies’ climate-related risks and opportunities.
Read moreHow to Make ESG Pay Links More Effective
Shareholder resolutions requesting companies disclose plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 received increased support in the 2021 proxy season. While this is a positive development, companies must do more to cut emissions in half by 2030 to meet the Paris climate treaty goals. The way to make this work is to have a direct link to executive compensation packages. If the board sets a real financial incentive then executives will make it happen.
Read moreCost Externalization: A Bad Trade for Diversified Shareholders
The Shareholder Commons has filed or otherwise supported 19 shareholder proposals in 2022 that focus on systematic risks, including mis/disinformation, climate change, and antimicrobial resistance. The common thread running through these proposals is how a company’s externalized costs affect shareholders by reducing the value of other assets in their portfolios.
Read moreA New Investment Theory for Dealing with Systemic Risks
The definition of what it means to invest is changing. Today, investors are looking beyond their trading terminals and tackling investing risks in the real world, where value is created, as well as in the capital markets, where it is priced.
Read moreThe Promise of Retail Shareholder Power
Voting is integral to the democratic process. During the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, it felt as though you could hardly go a day without hearing a celebrity or politician urging the public to vote.
Read moreLawsuit Challenges SEC's Restrictive Shareholder Proposal Rules
In September 2020, the SEC under Chairman Jay Clayton issued amendments to Rule 14a-8 that substantially restrict shareholders’ access to the corporate proxy statement. The Clayton SEC’s actions came in the context of years of lobbying by major trade associations like the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the National Association of Manufacturers to limit shareholders’ ability to effectively engage with the companies they own on critical environmental, social, and governance issues.
Read more2022 Proxy Legal Overview: ESG Proposals in Ascendance
The 2022 proxy season reflects the ascendance of support for ESG shareholder proposals, along with policy changes at the SEC that both support and undermine these proposals.
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