In the face of fierce opposition, more progress than ever
[Image alt text: As You Sow® banner with logo, image of mountains and a lake, and text saying: The nation’s leading non-profit shareholder advocate, with a 30+ year track record of changing corporations for good] < [link removed] > Dear John,
Even in the face of fierce opposition, together we are accomplishing more than ever, helping corporations participate in the transition to a regenerative, just, and inclusive economy.
The new initiatives and endeavors below are just a few examples. Let’s help the world shift to a future we can believe in.
[Image alt text: Diverse staff having a video conference] < [link removed] >
Diverse Management = Better Financial Performance
As You Sow’s Capturing the Diversity Benefit < [link removed] > report establishes a statistically significant correlation between workforce diversity and key financial metrics, clearly linking competitive success to a diverse management team. < [link removed] >
This groundbreaking report analyzes 6,000 EEO-1 reports from 1,641 companies across eight industry sectors over five years. It gives corporations robust evidence to resist efforts to demonize corporate DEI programs and to elevate workplace diversity, racial justice, and equity as core business practices in service to financial performance.
The report shows that higher percentages of BIPOC (non-White) management are positively correlated with increases in enterprise value growth rate, free cash flow per share, income after tax, long-term growth mean, 10-year price change, mean return on equity (ROE), return on invested capital (ROIC), and 10-year total revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
[Image alt text: Seabed mining test vehicle CGI image] < [link removed] >
New Biodiversity Program
Biodiversity loss threatens life on Earth, diminishing species and genetic variation, and ecosystems' ability to provide essential services such as clean air, water, and food. Corporations are driving the crisis through habitat destruction, pollution, and unsustainable extraction practices, even though the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides are essential to all corporations.
As You Sow is beginning biodiversity work with a focus on deep sea mining < [link removed] > , seeking to safeguard one of the last remaining untouched ecosystems on the planet. In December 2023 As You Sow filed the first-ever deep sea mining shareholder resolutions at major automakers GM and Tesla < [link removed] > .
“Now more than ever, the risks of biodiversity loss and its implications for companies is top of mind for investors. The time is ripe to emphasize circularity and innovation over new extractive industries,” said Elizabeth Levy, As You Sow’s Biodiversity Program Coordinator. “Lack of deep sea mining policies is one of many areas where shareholders see their companies out of step with national and global goals to protect nature and untouched habitat.”
Ecosystem services, the invaluable yet often ignored benefits of our environment functioning normally, are at risk, and shareholders are raising the alarm.
[Image alt text: Cigarette butts] < [link removed] >
Holding the Tobacco Industry Accountable for Littered Cigarette Butts
In December, As You Sowfiled a first-of-its-kind shareholder resolution < [link removed] > asking U.S. tobacco giant Altria to take responsibility for the cleanup of trillions of discarded plastic cigarette filters in the U.S. market.
Used cigarette filters are the most littered form of plastic on the planet, releasing an estimated 300,000 tons of plastic microfibers into the environment. 4.5 trillion filters are discarded annually, and cleanup costs $26 billion per year.
“Cleanup costs have historically been borne by taxpayers,” said Conrad MacKerron, As You Sow’s Senior Vice President. “As a generator of enormous amounts of plastic filter cigarette waste, Altria and other manufacturers must begin to take financial responsibility for cleanup.”
The EU’s Single-Use Plastics Directive imposes Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on tobacco producers to cover the costs of collecting and processing cigarette filters… it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit.Thank you, as always, for making all this critical work possible. We are proud to stand with you, to create a world where people and the environment factor into the corporate decision-making shaping our future.
Yours for a sustainable world, [Image alt text: Photo of Jenna Belisle] Jenna L. Belisle
Director for Charitable Giving
Donate < [link removed] >
As You Sow’s 30+ year track record promoting corporate responsibility spans a broad range of the most important environmental and social issues facing corporations, investors, and citizens today, including changes to climate and supply chains, regenerative business practices, food that is safe to eat, workplace diversity, racial justice, and excessive executive compensation. Click here to donate. < [link removed] > < [link removed] > < [link removed] > < [link removed] >
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