Amazon Shareholders Vote on Climate-Safe Retirement Plans
Amazon employees currently profit from companies burning down the Amazon.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Stefanie Spear, sspear@asyousow.org, 216-387-1609
BERKELEY, CA—MAY 25, 2022—Amazon shareholders voted today on an As You Sow resolution asking the company to prepare a report on why the company operates under one set of climate policies for its operations and the opposite in its employee retirement investment plan. Vote totals will be released in four days.
While Amazon has made significant efforts to address climate change across its operations and has adopted ambitious climate goals, the company’s retirement plan is at the same time quietly directing more than $1 billion of employee savings into oil, coal-fired utilities, and agribusinesses involved in deforestation, thus creating cognitive dissonance, reputational risk, and potentially lower returns for employees.
“Based on interviews with Amazon employees, we see that the vast majority have no idea that their hard-earned savings are being invested in companies destroying their ability to retire on a livable planet,” said As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar. “We are pleased to see Amazon’s fleet of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles and net-zero commitments. However, it harms the integrity of the brand when, at the same time, the company has $653 million invested in oil, coal, and fossil-fired utilities and $50 million invested in deforestation-risk agribusiness.”
Amazon uses the Vanguard Target Date funds as its default retirement options, resulting in the majority of plan investments flowing into funds invested in companies flagged as major greenhouse gas emitters, and involved in Indonesia and Amazon rainforest destruction. “This shareholder resolution is part of a growing investor movement demanding the world’s largest asset managers act on climate risk,” said David Pinsky, a senior strategist at WorkforClimate, a platform that helps employees make a positive impact at their corporation. “To truly uphold their fiduciary responsibility, Vanguard and BlackRock must embrace the transition to a clean energy economy and immediately offer customers climate-safe investments. Amazon employees’ hard-earned savings don’t need to fuel the climate crisis, and Vanguard should be protecting its employees by investing in the climate transition.”
Directing employee savings into climate destruction may also make it more difficult to retain employees who are increasingly concerned about catastrophic climate impacts. Amazon employees across the world have come together to publicly call on the company to demand climate action. It is only a matter of time until these same employees discover that Amazon is directing their retirement savings into big oil, coal, and rainforest destruction.
As You Sow, a nonprofit corporate accountability organization, publishes monthly report cards rating mutual funds and retirement plans as part of its Invest Your Values initiative.
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As You Sow is the nation’s leading shareholder advocacy nonprofit, with a 30-year track record promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility and advancing values-aligned investing. Its issue areas include climate change, ocean plastics, pesticides, racial justice, workplace diversity, and executive compensation. Click here for As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker.