Why does methane matter? It is a powerful greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 80 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. While carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years, methane breaks down in a decade – impactful while it lasts (and, so far, it’s responsible for around 30 percent of global temperature rise), but it has a shorter life in the atmosphere.
Read moreInsurance Sector Leaders and Laggards Emerging on Climate Risk
For a second year in a row, As You Sow filed climate-related proposals with three insurers -- Chubb, Traveler’s, and Berkshire Hathaway -- asking the companies to measure, disclose, and set net-zero targets for their underwriting and investing activities. The proposals last year earned majority votes – 72 percent and 56 percent, respectively at Chubb and Travelers, and a vote at Berkshire garnered 46 percent of independent voters supporting the proposal (25 percent overall vote).
Read moreCompanies Claim Transferred Emissions Reduce GHG, But All It Does Is Move Pollution Elsewhere
To address growing climate-related portfolio risk, investors increasingly expect companies to set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5o goal and to report their reduction progress. Fundamental to target setting and reporting, however, is accuracy. Reported progress must reflect real-world emissions cuts. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
Read moreClosing the Loop on Plastic Pollution
Many corporations are attempting to mitigate the plastic pollution crisis by reducing their use of plastics, yet few have committed to tackling the crisis in its entirety by taking accountability for what actually happens to their packaging at its end of life.
Read moreSteel Industry Net Zero Targets Key for Decarbonization
Reducing GHG emissions from steel, one of the most widely used industrial materials, is a critical part of the global challenge of maintaining global temperatures to 1.5˚C. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the iron and steel sector accounts for 7 percent of global CO2 emissions due to its significant use of fossil fuels, heavy industrial process emissions, and power use. By 2050, demand for steel is expected to increase by more than one-third, posing the significant challenge of decoupling emissions from the sector’s growth.
Read moreMajority Votes on Deforestation Put Pressure on Industry Laggards
Shareholder concern about deforestation speaks for itself. Four majority votes on Green Century proposals in the last three years – Bunge, 99 percent; Bloomin’ Brands, 76 percent; Procter & Gamble, 67.6 percent; and Home Depot, 64.6 percent – build upon dozens of no-deforestation agreements that shareholders have won and have helped curb climate change and preserve endangered species around the world.
Read morePetrochemical Companies' Unsustainable Production Policies Drive Plastic Pollution Crisis
Following strong votes last year, As You Sow is expanding engagement on plastics and petrochemicals for 2023. The plastic pollution crisis continues unabated, with 139 million tons of single-use plastic waste created in 2021, six million more tons than in 2019, according to a recent report by Minderoo Foundation. Optimism is rising for a global treaty on plastics within the next two years that could include potential curbs on plastic production after initial treaty negotiations in December 2022 in Uruguay.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 moreDirectors And Auditors Fail To Account For Climate Risks
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 moreMcDonald’s to Get “Forever Chemicals” Out of Food Packaging
PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a family of man-made chemicals with known connections to myriad health impacts, including cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive and developmental harm, and they’re in our food. The compounds do not break down in the environment and can build up in our bodies as we are gradually exposed, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”
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