With over $27 billion invested in Vanguard funds, Google is Vanguard’s largest corporate retirement client. Google’s Vanguard-managed retirement plan has more than $2 billion invested in fossil fuels. Even worse, a study by the University of Waterloo for our allies at As You Sow found that Google’s employee 401(k) plan could have earned over $1 billion in additional returns had the company divested the plan from fossil fuels 10 years ago. As a global leader in tech and one of the world’s most valuable companies, Google has both the power and the responsibility to tell Vanguard to do better. You have the power to call on Google to live up to its climate commitments by demanding a fossil-free retirement plan from Vanguard that protects our future, and threatening to take its business elsewhere should Vanguard refuse. Once Vanguard starts feeling the heat from its largest corporate client, perhaps it will finally start to rethink whether fossil fuels are a worthwhile investment after all. Ask Google to do right by its employees, its climate commitments, and the planet by demanding that Vanguard provide Google employees with a fossil-free 401(k) plan. Email Google leadership with a copy to Vanguard now and tell them to stop financing the climate crisis. |
