Trillium Wraps Up 2010 Proxy Season
The 2009-2010 proxy season was marked by a number of strong votes on shareholder proposals and successful corporate dialogues sponsored by Trillium Asset Management Corporation. “Across the industry, investor support for environmental, social and governance proposals (ESG) has climbed dramatically in the last several years,” said Shelley Alpern, Director of ESG Research and Shareholder Engagement at Trillium. “Support for our proposals reflected this trend almost across the board, with the median level of support reaching 26 percent. If abstentions are considered as an indicator of investor dissatisfaction, it is clear in several cases that shareholders are even more dissatisfied with …
Dear Reader
Cheryl Smith, Ph.D., CFA, President In the mind-numbingly complicated world of 21st century high finance, it’s not always obvious which transactions are unethical versus those which are, if not high-minded, at least legally permissible within a deeply flawed system. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Goldman Sachs with fraud in connection with the creation and sale of a “synthetic synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligation” (SSCDO) allegedly custom designed to allow a favored client, John Paulson, to place a outsized bearish bet against the mortgage market. The alleged fraud is not in the creation of the security but in the …
The One Thing You Can’t Find on Google
Jonas Kron The world will not soon forget the power and significance of Google’s decision this past January to stop censoring search results in China. That bold action will likely be seen as a watershed moment in the history of corporate social responsibility. Google deserves accolades for its environmental and social behavior in many respects. The company ranked first among Fortune magazine’s top places to work in 2007 and 2008, and its charitable arm has taken innumerable important steps towards addressing our economy’s dependence on carbon based fuels. Hence, many people are surprised to learn that the company has completely …
Goodbye to BP
Shelley Alpern BP? We’re out of it. With the benefit of perfect hindsight, I wish we’d sold before the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe; this wasn’t the first lethal BP disaster in recent years. We could also see the company’s commitment to shareholder engagement on environmental, social and governance matters (ESG) slipping as well, but were hoping that the collective efforts of the social investment community could turn that around. We held out hope because BP is still the oil and gas company with the lowest carbon footprint (it was the first to acknowledge the reality of global warming) and maintains a …
Mamma Chia
www.mammachia.com by Chris Lindstrom, an early investor in Mamma Chia When many people hear the word “chia” they think of little ceramic pets that sprout green leafy “hair.” But a growing number of people know it as a miraculous seed that is one of the most nutritious whole foods in the world – and soon, they will know it as a delicious vitality beverage. Mamma Chia is an organic, chia-based food and beverage company based in San Diego, backed by a provisional patent that will be launching its first-to-market chia vitality beverage later this year. Mamma Chia contains hundreds of …
Cummins, Inc.
500 Jackson Street, Box 3005 Columbus, IN 47202 www.cummins.com Cummins Inc. (NYSE – CMI) is the technology leader in the manufacture of diesel, natural gas, and hybrid engines in the U.S., working to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions. Cummins has outperformed peers in meeting the demand for lower-emissions engines, which has given the company a strong competitive advantage, as customers replace older vehicles to meet new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. Cummins’ technological solutions comply with both the stringent U.S. EPA 2010 emission standards and Tier 4 regulations, which take effect in 2011. The latter will require a 90 …
Supreme Court Comes To the Aid of Disenfranchised Corporations
Milton Moskowitz According to Advertising Age, the authoritative source for such statistics, the 10 largest advertisers in the U.S. in 2008 were Procter & Gamble ($4.8 billion), Verizon ($3.7 billion), AT&T ($3 billion), General Motors ($2.9 billion), Johnson & Johnson ($2.5 billion), Unilever ($2.4 billion), Walt Disney ($2.2 billion), Time Warner ($2.2 billion), General Electric ($2 billion), and Sears Holding ($1.8 billion). As astronomical as those figures may seem to you, they mask the discrimination that has prevented these companies from spending even more money to express their opinions. You may be annoyed by the constant interruption of TV programs by …
Restoring New Mexico’s Natural Gas Fields
Will Lana If you find yourself traveling in the Four Corners region of Northwestern New Mexico you’ll see many fine sights – broad mesas with pinon pines, red rocked desert towers, Anasazi ruins and historic frontier towns. Look closely and you may catch a glimpse of local wildlife such as Gambel’s quail, mule deer or elk. In addition you’ll see oil and gas activity – over 20,000 wells are producing in the region’s San Juan Basin. Since discovery in the 1920s, the San Juan Basin has pumped out 36 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Today it’s the nation’s second …
Citizens United Explained
Jonas Kron “The Court’s blinkered and aphoristic approach to the First Amendment may well promote corporate power at the cost of the individual and collective self-expression the Amendment was meant to serve.” ~Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the minority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission1 In January, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that the First Amendment protects the use of corporate funds to advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for public office. The 5–4 majority reasoned that because corporations are simply groups of individuals with First Amendment rights, those …
Reining In Citizens United
Shelley Alpern At Trillium, we hold to the widely accepted belief that transparent and well-functioning democracies are not only the best and most desirable forms of governance, but also provide the best climates for investment. Hence our nervousness at the potential of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to weaken democracy by exacerbating the already-great advantage corporations have in speaking louder than the rest of us.When Citizens United was handed down in January, the punditocracy was ablaze overnight with schemes for stemming the flood of corporate spending that is widely expected to be unleashed. Pass a constitutional amendment. Require shareholder …
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