For 2024, more than 30 shareholder proposals have been filed asking for lobbying disclosure reports that include federal and state lobbying amounts, payments to trade associations and 501(c)(4) social welfare groups used for lobbying and payments to tax-exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation.
Read moreCorporate State Lobbying Remains a Black Hole
A Code for Corporate Political Spending Disclosure
Today’s headlines are focused on the threats to democracy fueled by the looming 2024 presidential and congressional elections. Far less attention is being paid to the corporate treasury dollars underwriting activities that imperil our democracy.
Read moreSupport for Inclusive, Healthy Work Force Leads to Business Growth
Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) works to ensure all people have equitable access to quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health care no matter their background or location. This includes protecting the ability of 600 Planned Parenthood health centers to serve economically and medically underserved patients across the United States.
Read moreA Living Wage is a Human Right
Income disparity is one of the starkest indicators of our societal failures to foster a more equitable society and as a result, a more dynamic economy. In the United States 95 million workers have limited workplace flexibility and mobility, low collective bargaining ability, and minimal (if any) health and financial benefits. They also experience the highest exposure to workplace health and safety hazards, job stress, employment volatility, and exploitation.
Read moreDiverse Workforce Outperforms on Eight Key Financial Measures
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts look to ensure all employees, regardless of race or sex, get a fair shot. The recent Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in college admissions does not affect companies’ abilities to run DEI programs – although it may impact their pipeline of incoming talent.
Read moreBig Pharma Patent Extension Abuse Threatens Healthcare and Human Rights
For decades, Trinity Health along with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s Health Equity Group have made improving affordability of and access to medicines a focus for corporate engagements with the pharma sector. The United States has some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world. This affects not only patients who can’t afford needed medicines but also threatens healthcare budgets
Read moreThere is No ‘Just Transition’ Without Environmental Justice
Environmental justice ensures that everyone, regardless of income, race or national origin, has the same environmental protections and can meaningfully participate in policies that shape their communities. In reality, low-income communities and communities of color in the United States have faced a long history of racial inequity and environmental injustice.
Read moreAssessing Risks of AI Misinformation and Disinformation
Big Tech, including Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, is investing hundreds of billions of dollars to dominate the AI race. This year, shareholder proposals ask tech companies to increase transparency around AI and assess AI-related risks, particularly to children and elections
Read moreBig Tech Fails to Protect Children Online
In January 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared at a U.S. Senate hearing regarding online child sexual exploitation. In the back of the room stood parents holding photos of their children who died after online sexual exploitation and cyberbullying. At one point Mr. Zuckerberg said to them “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Read moreCompanies Taking a Closer Look at How Racial Inequity Affects Their Workers, Customers and Shareholders
The third anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police officers is fast approaching. We are reminded of the work we began nearly three years ago by filing Racial Equity Audit (REA) shareholder proposals and how much work remains. The police killings of Black people across the U.S. continue to galvanize the movement for racial justice, and corporations continue to be held accountable socially and legally for their role in furthering the economic and political repression of nonwhite communities.
Read moreEnding Child Labor in Cocoa Production
In 2023, the chocolate industry is still not free from child labor. Millions of children are being robbed of their childhood and right to education while working on farms to meet corporate demand for cheaply sourced cocoa. Since this is an industry-wide issue, corporations tend to place the onus on the industry at large rather than assume liability individually.
Read moreMeta Fails to Address Online Child Safety Risks
The internet was not developed with children in mind. There is no better example of this than Meta, which intended its platforms as a place where people could connect with friends and family. Instead, they have become a dangerous playground for children.
Read moreCorporate Efforts on Climate Must Include Lobbying
While climate change always seems to bring troubling news, few reports in the past year are more compelling than those from scientists saying our ability to reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels is pretty much out of reach.
Read moreShareholders and Local Communities Join to Demand Racial and Environmental Justice
Often, companies have no “business-case rationale” to listen to the communities negatively affected by their operations and no incentives to act. As shareholders, we have legal standing to engage the executives and boards of these public companies.
Read moreIncrease in EEO-1 Data Reporting Shows Positive Link Between Diversity and Financial Performance
A report released by As You Sow and Whistle Stop Capital in November 2022 assessed the data from 277 EEO-1 reports, looking at the link between workforce diversity and corporate financial performance. In line with our hypothesis and others’ previous research, the analysis found that financial metrics, like return on equity and net profit, were associated with higher levels of diversity in management.
Read moreIllegally Captured Primates Used in Animal Testing Pose Health and Investor Risks
Animal testing behemoth Charles River Laboratories is one of the largest importers of monkeys into the U.S., each year bringing in thousands of monkeys – mostly long-tailed macaques – from Southeast Asia and Mauritius. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified long-tailed macaques as “endangered,” identifying the U.S. experimentation industry as a major driver pushing these monkeys toward extinction.
Read moreRailroad Workers' Lack of Paid Sick Leave Puts Employees, Public and Investors at Risk
Impact Shares considers paid sick leave (PSL) to represent an important human capital investment critical to investors, as well as a racial and gender equity concern. Filing a shareholder proposal at Norfolk Southern railways requesting that the company adopt a PSL policy as a standard benefit was the first step in leveraging our position as an ETF issuer representing leading social and environmental advocacy organizations.
Read moreA Framework for Evaluating Goals and Risks of Corporate Political Spending
Companies today face a high-risk landscape for their political spending and its impact. The crisis that confronts U.S. democracy and the gridlock blocking action on a broad range of issues from climate change to voting, women’s reproductive rights, guns and even democracy itself has put front and center the role of company political spending in contributing to the breakdown.
Read moreRecord Number of Proposals Address Threats to Reproductive Health Care
Investors working with Rhia Ventures filed a record 30 proposals this proxy season to advance comprehensive and reproductive health care, double the number from the 2022 proxy season. The subject matter of the proposals expanded from last year’s focus on risk mitigation and political spending misalignment to include a number of new areas of concern that have intensified since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022.
Read more