As You Sow
The nation's leading non-profit shareholder advocate, changing corporations for good
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Hello John,

A practical and proven strategy is one of the most important parts of a successful plan. As You Sow’s engagements and shareholder resolutions move companies to take courageous, positive steps towards sustainability and justice. We encourage leaders — and compel laggards — to step up. Read on for early results from this season’s work.


Two More Banks Join Peers on Financed Emissions and Net-Zero Goals

Wells Fargo ([link removed]) and Goldman Sachs ([link removed]) announced, just days apart, that they’re joining the other four big U.S. banks we engage and will align their financing activities with net-zero-by-2050 goals. Both commitments include setting interim targets and publicly disclosing progress along the way – a critical part of accountability and ultimate success. These two banks, plus JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Bank of America, have all accepted responsibility for the emissions created by the projects their loans finance, and for aligning with the Paris Climate Agreement’s 1.5°C goal.

These announcements are a clear signal to companies in every sector, including oil & gas, that they must set and meet credible net-zero transition targets or find access to capital increasingly expensive and restricted. No longer is business as usual an acceptable standard.

Just a year ago these commitments seemed a long way off, even laughable, given the banks’ initial responses to our engagements. Tenacity and perseverance are paying dividends.

We’ll be looking into the details and watching for interim targets and transparent reporting as these banks progress toward their goals.



Beverage and Snack Food Giants Agree to Cut Plastics Use

Keurig Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and Mondelez (Chips Ahoy, Oreo, Triscuit) have agreed to cut absolute use of virgin plastic for packaging. ([link removed]) The Mondelez action alone is expected to reduce virgin plastic packaging by 10,000 tons per year. Pepsi had previously agreed to reduce virgin plastic content in its beverages division by 35% — its new goals reaffirms its earlier commitment and extends to products like Frito Lay and Quaker Oats.

Improved recycling alone is not sufficient to stem the tide of plastic pollution engulfing oceans — we need reductions in actual plastic use, materials redesign, and substitution. As You Sow has filed shareholder resolutions with ten leading consumer goods companies calling for commitments to absolute cuts in use of plastic packaging. Keurig Dr Pepper, Pepsi, and Mondelez are the first results.

“We look forward to other companies stepping forward to make similar commitments,” says Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President of As You Sow.

Thousands of companies will need to make far larger cuts in plastic use to adequately reduce the plastic pollution flowing into our oceans. When industry leaders step up, other industry players take notice and move toward the needed changes.



Shareholders Expect Action

2020 inspired many new shareholder resolutions for investors to consider in 2021. This season there’s a big increase in resolutions on racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion — and fresh ideas about worker safety and climate transition planning are in the mix. It’s clear that “business as usual” is no longer acceptable.

Proxy Preview 2021 ([link removed]), the annual collaboration between As You Sow, Proxy Impact, and Sustainable Investment Institute, is our flagship publication. Its far-reaching compilation of each season’s shareholder resolutions makes it an invaluable resource for financial advisors, fund managers, and investors of all sizes in understanding the proxy landscape and confidently voting their values.

Contributors this year include Thomas DiNapoli, Comptroller of the State of New York and Sir Christopher Hohn, Founder and Portfolio Manager, TCI Fund Management. Articles include topics ranging from environmental issues like PFAs in food packaging and following the money in climate change, to aan examination of benefit corporations and external cost disclosures and a controversial Facebook encryption plan that could hide online child sexual exploitation. In short, it’s a must-read tour of the most important issues facing the world — and how you can contribute to the solutions with your proxy vote.

As our CEO says in the forward, “Words will not suffice. Now is the time for action.”


Yours for a sustainable and just future,
Danielle Fugere
President and Chief Counsel


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As You Sow

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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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