“We’re pleased to see 3M setting these targets,” said Danielle Fugere, president of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, which endorses SBTi validation. “They appear to be doing this in a way that’s transparent, not confusing or misleading.”  Read More →

While that may be an underlying factor, investors are actually serious about climate action, says Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel at As You Sow, a California-based organization that represents shareholders on social and climate issues.  Read More →

‘General Mills is falling behind its peers in reporting on pesticide reduction, which may negatively impact long-term shareholder value,’ says Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel at As You Sow, in a statement on the vote.  Read More →

“There has been a change over time,” says Danielle Fugere, As You Sow’s president and chief counsel. Investors have long lined up at the microphone to ask questions. But with the rise of virtual-only settings, Fugere says, “you’re seeing companies obviously picking questions that are friendly to them, and not necessarily responding—or giving the opportunity to shareholders to ask the more difficult questions. We’re seeing even more pushback.”    Read More →

A follow-up paper by a consulting group even used the Wharton study to estimate costs for other states considering or enacting legislation. The follow-up paper was conducted on behalf of ESG activist groups known as As You Sow and Ceres.  Read More →

Filed by As You Sow , the resolution notes that while the firm discloses pounds of pesticides avoided annually by its organic farmers, it does not report pesticide use reductions by its suppliers using regenerative agriculture practices. Read More →

To inform the public and financial professionals, we published, “Climate Inflation: How Extreme Weather is Driving Up the Price of Food.” As our paper shows, chocolate isn’t the only family favorite that’s more expensive than ever due to climate change. Read More →

As You Sow, a nonprofit that promotes corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, has drafted a shareholder proposal about John Deere’s “ambiguous and inconsistent shift in policies and practices” regarding DEI, writing that dismantling key policies exposes the company to “financial, competitive, legal, and reputational risks.”. Read More →

ESG investors can determine the social responsibility of over 3,000 shared funds. They can also check how their carbon emissions affect society from the As You Sow website. Your fund ratings can be found on a scale of A to F, depending on the screen you choose to perform a financial analysis on. Read More →

Reveal reporter Jonathan Jones was working on a story about a massive coal plant expansion in Montana when he wondered who was bankrolling the project. It turns out a major shareholder of the energy company driving the project was The Vanguard Group, the investment firm where he happens to have his retirement savings.  Read More →

As You Sow, a nonprofit that represents investors interested in environmental and social issues, filed the proposal Thursday as a corporate ballot submission for votes at Deere’s next annual shareholder meeting. Read More →

Over the last two years, we’ve seen a growing number of largely white male politicians, business leaders, and even journalists calling for the end of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives at public corporations. Read More →

Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow, was summoned before the committee in March along with the shareholder group’s CEO Andy Behar for 15 hours of questioning. Afterward, Fugere said Jordan’s staff couldn’t provide a legislative reason for why they needed such exhaustive information. Read More →

If you want fossil-fuel-free funds, check out this site run by shareholder advocate As You Sow. It also rates funds that own companies that finance and insure the fossil fuel industry. Read More →

Dozens of tidal gauges from the coast of North Carolina to the tip of Texas show sea levels are six inches higher today than in 2010 – an accelerated change that previously took 50 years. Most remarkable is that this coastal area along the Gulf of Mexico is rising at nearly twice the global average, according to this map recently published by the Washington Post. Read More →

These heavy metals make their way into your chocolate through the cacao bean, said Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel at As You Sow, a nonprofit that worked with the chocolate industry to produce an investigative report on heavy metals in chocolate in 2022. Read More →

The House Judiciary Committee has delivered a clear message to the free market: shut up about climate change or pay the price. The Committee’s Chairman sent threatening letters and filed subpoenas to intimidate 14 mainstream investor organizations with a combined $105 trillion in assets under management, including As You Sow, the nonprofit that I lead.  Read More →

I stand by my assessment and believe that Friedman, were he alive today, might even agree. Nobel laureate and Columbia economics professor Joseph Stiglitz would also agree, as he explained in a recent Washington Post op-ed, “Time is up for neoliberals.” Read More →

“This is a new chapter in a broader deregulatory story that’s a century old,” said Luke Morgan, an attorney with As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy nonprofit. “The reason that this has moved to focus on litigation is because the political movement failed. There was no popular support for this whatsoever.” Read More →

That’s what happened to our nonprofit, when the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter asking As You Sow and 13 other mainstream investor organizations to turn over all documents related to our work representing shareholders looking to reduce climate risk in their portfolios. Read More →

As You Sow — a nonprofit promoting corporate social responsibility — filed a proposal in December asking shareholders to impose a moratorium on sourcing minerals from deep seabeds. “We are seeing Tesla, the face of the EV transition, as a laggard,” said Elizabeth Levy, the nonprofit’s biodiversity program coordinator. Read More →

“Every company can be doing more,” said Kelly McBee, circular economy manager at As You Sow and one of the report’s co-authors. In particular, she said corporations should place more emphasis on reducing the plastic they use, rather than replacing virgin plastic with recycled content.  Read More →

It appears that the Judiciary Committee is specifically trying to discourage our coordination because they see it as the key to reducing climate risk for the entire global economy. Therefore, I propose that the 14 of us actually do work together, with total transparency, to accomplish the task that the committee has laid before us.  Read More →

New research conducted at the University of Waterloo (Canada) in partnership with the shareholder organization I lead, As You Sow, looked at the 401(k) plans of 12 tech-sector companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Netflix. On average, investments in fossil-free portfolios did 8.9% better over 10 years. Read More →

“Shareholders need to have a voice because management doesn’t always get it,” said Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow, a left-leaning nonprofit foundation that is behind many proposals. “Boards are not always focused.” As You Sow put forward more than 80 shareholder proposals this year, including one on alleged employee harassment at carmaker Tesla and another on competitor General Motors’ policies on deep-sea mineral mining. Read More →

“Americans are behind. We think it puts companies at a competitive disadvantage globally, said Danielle Fugere, As You Sow’s president and chief counsel. “What we do is bring these issues to the board’s attention and let shareholders weigh in.” Read More →

“Last year As You Sow had 210 engagements and 99 companies agreed to take action, a great many of them on DEI disclosure,” he said, without naming the companies it had targeted. “We escalated 111 by filing shareholder resolutions; 56 agreed to terms and we withdrew. The remainder went to a vote which then led to more engagements and action by the vast majority companies.” Read More →

“Biodiversity proposals and commitments have become an overarching trend in 2024,” Elizabeth Levy, biodiversity programme coordinator at California-based non-profit As You Sow, told Carbon Pulse. “Investors are continuing to look at the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss – including certain land use practices in the agricultural industry – and engaging with companies on those topics.” Read More →

“We know fossil fuels have underperformed over the last decade, so the results shouldn’t be surprising,” said As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar. “What’s surprising is that nearly every retirement plan is invested in the extractive economy, which runs counter to the values of the people who earn the money while reducing their retirement savings.”   Read More →

As You Sow recommends that companies aim to make at least 5% of the total “performance shares” in their CEO’s long-term incentive plan relate to climate goals. Performance shares are an incentive-based form of stock compensation paid to executives for meeting certain benchmarks. “It can’t be so small in comparison to other payouts that it would not incentivize action,” says Danielle Fugere, president and chief counsel of As You Sow. Read More →