PRESS RELEASES

Constellation Brands released vote totals showing that approximately 25% of shareholders voted in support of stronger emissions goals and a transition towards a circular economy for packaging, two primary and urgent concerns for shareholders and the company.  

Today, As You Sow, in partnership with Ubuntoo, an environmental solutions platform, released their “2024 Plastic Promises Scorecard” ranking 225 global companies across 15 industries on their ambition and actions to reduce plastic packaging pollution. One major finding of the report is the significant gap between companies’ stated plastic reduction commitments and actions taken to meet those commitments.

Vote totals were released last Wednesday, May 31, for Exxon’s 2024 Annual General Meeting. The meeting was unique for both its tone and substance, with Exxon openly vilifying and disparaging its investors for asking questions about the future direction of the company.

Tomorrow, ExxonMobil’s (NYSE: XOM) shareholders will vote on a proposal filed by United Church Funds and represented by As You Sow calling on Exxon to report how a significant reduction in virgin plastic demand would impact the company’s financial position and the assumptions underlying its financial statements. Exxon tried and failed to block the proposal at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in March of this year, one of many confrontational actions by Exxon targeting shareholders this proxy season.

As global plastics treaty talks wind down in Ottawa, I was pleased to see key topics like petrochemical production caps and extended producer responsibility front and center in discussions. Those have been the ongoing focus of As You Sow’s plastic pollution conversation with major producers and their customers for several years.

As You Sow filed a first-of-its-kind shareholder proposal on Friday asking U.S. tobacco giant Altria to assess and take responsibility for the collection and cleanup costs of trillions of discarded plastic cigarette filters. Used cigarette filters are the most littered form of plastic on the planet, with an estimated marine ecosystem and waste management cost of $26 billion per year. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the nation’s most sweeping electronics device repair legislation, SB 244, into law on Tuesday. Under the bill, manufacturers will be required to facilitate the repair of covered consumer electronics – including computers – by making certain tools and parts available to consumers and repair shops for at least seven years after production. The bill was supported by Apple and HP, yet opposed by device manufacturer trade associations, including the Consumer Technology Association. 

While delegates from 180 countries debated a global treaty to combat plastic pollution that might include plastic production caps, one-quarter (25.3%) of ExxonMobil shareholders representing $66.7 billion supported a resolution filed by As You Sow asking the company to study how a one-third cut in demand for virgin single-use plastic would affect its financial position at the company’s recent annual meeting. 

As You Sow, a long-time advocate of producer responsibility for packaging, salutes the passage of landmark California legislation (SB 54) that makes producers responsible for the recycling of post-consumer packaging, requires a 25% reduction in use of single-use plastic packaging, and a 65% recycling rate for all packaging by 2032.

Shareholders of McDonald’s Corporation representing more than $51 billion in market value supported a resolution filed by As You Sow requesting the company develop a list of actions it could take to reduce plastic pollution.