Recently Green America Executive Director Alisa Gravitz wrote to Green America members regarding the power of shareholder activism. The letter appears below in its entirety. We at Global Investment Watch agree that shareholder activism can be an incredibly powerful tool that we should all learn how to use.
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Does McDonald’s share your values? Would you change their business practices if you could?
The good news is … you can! Just last week a committed group of McDonald’s shareholders convinced the company to take the dangers of pesticide-use seriously, and begin to promote best-practices for pesticide reduction among its potato suppliers.
If you own mutual funds, or you are a direct shareholder in a corporation, then you are part-owner of that company – someone with the right and responsibility of helping determine the direction that company will take.
In the case of McDonald’s, concerned shareholders filed a resolution asking the company to address the serious issue of pesticide use, and its effects on the environment, public health, and farm workers. The resolution got the company’s attention, and convinced McDonald’s – largest buyer of American-grown potatoes — to act before shareholders took their concern to the company’s annual meeting. (See our online FAQ on shareholder action to learn more about shareholder resolutions, voting your proxies, divestment strategies, and annual shareholders’ meetings.)
The McDonald’s victory is just one of the most recent in a long line of shareholder successes stretching all the way back to the shareholder divestment campaign that helped end South African Apartheid in the 1980s. Victories last year included convincing two of the largest publicly traded homebuilders (Centex and KB Homes) to increase the energy efficiency of their buildings, and convincing the Ford Motor Company to outline plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its vehicles.
Unfortunately, despite the many climate-change-related shareholder successes of recent years, some of the largest mutual fund families – mutual funds that vote for shareholder resolutions on YOUR behalf – have failed to vote responsibly on climate change issues.
If you own mutual funds with any of the following companies (Fidelity, ING, Oppenheimer, Pioneer, RiverSource, Frank Russell, State Street, Steward, and Vanguard), we’re asking you to contact your mutual fund today (before its too late for this year’s shareholder season) and ask them to vote responsibly on your behalf on any resolution relating to climate change.
We give you a sample letter on our Web site that you can copy and modify for your own use, and we give you addresses to help you direct your message to one of the nine funds in question. Pressure from investors like you is working. Over the last five years, mainstream mutual fund support of climate-change resolutions has risen 10 percent, a critical increase when resolution support of 10 – 20 percent is enough to get management’s attention.
In addition, if you are a direct shareholder in publicly traded companies, you will receive a proxy-voting packet by mail. Please check out our proxy voting charts to help you choose how to vote. They give you lists of this year’s most pressing resolutions, organized by issue area, as compiled by our allies at Ceres, the AFL-CIO, and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).
For example, under the climate change chart, you can find resolutions asking for emissions reductions from electric utilities. Under the human rights chart, you can find resolutions addressing slavery in US steel company Nucor’s supply chain, and a call for Chevron to adopt a human rights policy. The credit card proxy chart addresses predatory practices at three of America’s largest banks, and under the executive compensation chart you can find demands that shareholders have a “say on pay” at companies like GE, Coca-Cola, and CVS. (We encourage you to vote “yes” on these resolutions.)
Please use our charts to help you vote your proxies this year, and forward them to others who might find them useful. If you know that your mutual fund owns shares of a company mentioned on one of our charts, you could add a section to your mutual-fund letter, detailing how you wish your fund to vote.
Shareholder action is a powerful economic tool that runs parallel to “voting with your dollars” for a better world.
Here’s to our many economic strategies for ending the era of corporate greed and building a greener planet…
Alisa Gravitz
Executive Director
Green America
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