Dear John,
Shareholder advocacy is already off to a powerful start this year, thanks to supporters like you! This month’s updates include the expansion of our engagements with insurance companies regarding climate change, shareholders’ support for reporting on pesticide use, and concerning new developments in the radical right’s pushback against the freedom to invest. | |
| | | As You Sow expands dialogues with major
insurers
Last year, As You Sow engaged with Travelers Insurance, asking the company how it will maintain a viable homeowners insurance business as catastrophic climate-related weather events force unaffordable rate increases and shrink the areas where insurance coverage can be provided. | | | | | | We’re now asking insurance company Chubb Limited to look at ways to recover money it pays out to customers by seeking repayment (or subrogation) from companies most responsible for causing climate
damage. Holding corporations accountable would help slow the rapid rise in insurance prices currently being borne by homeowners, while also forcing the true cost of climate pollution to be reflected in the price of high-carbon products. | | | | Additionally, As You Sow is shedding light on a problematic conflict of interest: major insurers like Travelers and Chubb are also contributing to climate change by directly investing in and insuring high-carbon companies. |
| | | | 28% of
General Mills shareholders vote in support of pesticide disclosure
General Mills advertises that it invests millions of dollars in its regenerative agriculture program, but it fails to report on how it’s measuring building healthy soils, reducing harmful pollution, improving worker and farmer health, or building greater food system resilience.
As You Sow has been asking the company to report on its pesticide reduction goals, a key component in achieving each of these goals, and our resolutions have received very strong
support from shareholders. | | | | “For the second consecutive year, nearly one third of General Mills' shareholders are demanding reporting on this key measure of success,” said Cailin Dendas, Senior Environmental Health Coordinator at As You Sow. “Companies that can credibly show pesticide reductions are better positioned to capture market share, maintain brand trust, and avoid costly litigation or regulatory penalties.” |
| | |
| As You Sow cited General Mills’ competitors
including Conagra and Lamb Weston, companies that continue to demonstrate transparency and mitigate risk by publicly reporting on their pesticide reductions. | | | | | New Trump order further threatens investor rights and corporate accountability
Last month, the Trump Administration issued an executive order called “Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors.” Our issue experts believe that the order’s mandates will interfere with and encumber independent market
transactions, control and limit information available to investors, and impose an irrational set of beliefs in place of well-informed investor decision making.
For instance, the executive order directs the SEC to revise or repeal the shareholder proposal process. This process has been in place since 1942 and has long provided investors and corporations with a vital mechanism to raise and address issues relevant to corporate governance, risk, and long-term value.
In an interview with ESG Dive, As You Sow President and Chief Counsel Danielle Fugere said, “[proposed changes to the shareholder proposal process] entirely ignore the financial benefits [of] shareholder proposals. In a public market, investors appropriately raise issues of concern with companies and seek material information to inform their capital investment
decisions." | | | |
| Shareholders have legal standing to engage with corporate executives as the board reports to us. This provides investors with a unique opportunity and duty to highlight material risk and present solutions that benefit all stakeholders. Shareholder advocacy has an increasingly critical role in ensuring a livable future. We’re up for the challenge as long as you’re standing with us. We appreciate your support as we enter a new year of powerful engagements and mounting pushback.
For the future, | | | Andrew Behar
CEO, As You Sow | | | | As You Sow is the nation’s leading shareholder representative, 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, toxins in the food system, biodiversity loss, racial injustice, and lack of workplace diversity. See As You Sow’s shareholder resolution
tracker. | | | As You Sow
11461 San Pablo Avenue, Suite 400
El Cerrito, CA
94530 | | | | DISCLAIMER: As You Sow is not an investment advisor, nor do we provide financial planning, legal or tax advice. The content of our programming, publications and presentations is provided for informational and educational purposes
only, and should not be considered as information sufficient upon which to base any decisions on investing, purchases, sales, trades, or any other investment transactions. We do not express an opinion on the future or expected value of any security or other interest and do not explicitly or implicitly recommend or suggest an investment strategy of any kind.
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