Milt Moskowitz: Sanity in an Insane World from Paul Polman, the CEO who is Reshaping Unilever
Everyone complains about the short-term thinking that rules financial markets these days, but no one ever does much about it. Until now. Stepping up to the plate is Unilever, the storied Anglo-Dutch supplier of food, beverage and personal care products, sold under some 400 brand names including Lux, Dove, Hellmann’s, Ben & Jerry’s, Lipton, Knorr, Bertolli and Vaseline. In a far-ranging interview with Adi Ignatius, editor in chief of the Harvard Business Review, CEO Paul Polman spelled out the steps Unilever is taking to become a sustainable corporation. I have seen many mission statements in my time. It’s easy to …
Oikocredit USA Profiles Trillium's Community Impact Investing Portfolio
Oikocredit USA, the United States arm of Oikocredit, a worldwide financial institution that promotes global justice by empowering disadvantaged people with credit, recently ran a profile of Trillium’s Community Impact Investing portfolio. “’All we’ve ever done is environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing,’ says Randy Rice of Trillium Asset Management. ‘In our community impact investing portfolio we are focused on helping our clients achieve a high social return combined with a modest financial return.’ To achieve that goal, he helps clients invest in domestic and international loan funds, and Oikocredit has been in the portfolio for a long time. In …
Ceres: Shareholder Resolutions Spur U.S. Companies to Act on Sustainability During 2012 Proxy Season
Ceres, a U.S.-based nonprofit co-founded by Trillium Asset Management, which advocates for corporate sustainability leadership, recently released its wrap-up of the 2012 Proxy season. The July 10, 2012 press release states, in part: “During the 2012 proxy voting season, investors successfully used shareholder resolutions to spur action on corporate sustainability challenges such as climate change, hydraulic fracturing and supply chain and water availability risks. Of the nearly 110 resolutions tracked by Ceres in 2012, 44 proposals resulted in U.S. companies making commitments to tackle environmental and social risks in their operations and supply chains.” “…In 2012, investors continued to focus …
CFO Magazine: Show Us the Talent
Currently, most public companies do not have a consistent, standardized, method to communicate with shareholders and other stakeholders about the financial value of their human capital assets. The Society for Human Resource Management has recently proposed a Standard for corporate disclosure of human-capital that includes the reporting of employee salaries, benefits and taxes; number of full-time equivalents and total headcount; spending on employee support; spending in lieu of employees; and training and development as well as employee retention and leadership pipeline. CFO Magazine published an article about the proposed Standards. David McCann writes, “Keith Mills, an equity analyst at Trillium …
WealthManagement.com: Protect the Environment – Invest in REITS
WealthManagement.com recently published an article that explores the question of whether real estate investment trusts (REITs) deserve a place in a Sustainable and Responsible Investing portfolio. Jennifer Popovec writes, “Many property owners report that commercial buildings with energy efficiency ratings command significantly higher rents, boast higher occupancy rates, and achieve higher sale prices compared to conventional buildings. Likewise, a number of apartment REITs indicate that today’s renter is increasingly interested in living in communities that are “environmentally conscious.” ‘We have observed that the payback from doing green, environmentally focused activities is pretty high in real estate versus other industries,’ says …
Johnson & Johnson Terminates Membership In American Legislative Exchange Council
Trillium Asset Management, LLC is pleased that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) confirmed this week that the company has terminated its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The highly controversial conservative organization has attracted significant attention for its activities promoting gun laws like the one at the center of the Trayvon Martin case, bills weakening labor unions and rules that tighten voter identification requirements. Having been in dialogue with Johnson & Johnson about our concerns – expressly urging it to leave ALEC weeks ago – we commend the company on its prudent decision which we believe is …
Institutional Investor: Institutional Investors Demand Disclosure on Companies’ Political Spending
Institutional Investor recently published an article about the growing number of investors who are pressing companies to disclose their political spending and Trillium’s shareholder proposals which requests that companies refrain from spending money from the corporate treasury for political purpose. Katie Gilbert writes, “Some investors say that requiring disclosure may not go far enough; companies need to altogether exit from political spending that’s funded straight out of the corporate treasury, they insist. This proxy season, socially responsible investment firm Trillium Asset Management filed the first shareholder proposal by an institutional investor that asks a company to completely refrain from channeling funds from …
FDIC to Investigate Reports of Banks Engaging in Payday Lending
In March 2012, Trillium Asset Management, along with 250 national, state and local organizations and individuals, sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, The Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency asking the regulators to stop banks from making predatory payday loans, which can carry annual interest rates of nearly 400% The letter focused on deposit “advance” loans which banks structure like loans from payday lenders. These loans are high-cost and have a short-term balloon repayment, trapping low-wealth and low-income borrowers in a cycle of expensive and increasing debt, causing serious …
GreenMoney Journal: The Next 20 Years of SRI
GreenMoney Journal’s 20th Anniversary issue includes an article by Cheryl Smith, entitled The Next 20 Years of SRI. “Over the past 20 years, U.S. assets invested using a Sustainable and Responsible Investing (SRI) framework have increased five-fold, from $639 billion in 1995 to over $3 trillion in 2010 according to the Trends Report from the US SIF. Concomitantly, institutional investors worldwide now recognize the efficacy and legitimacy of the incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investment analysis”, Ms. Smith writes. The complete article can be read here. …
Shareholder Proposal on Network Neutrality Gains Momentum in Vote at Verizon
Results Surpass Those at AT&T; Third vote upcoming at Sprint on May 15 A shareholder proposal calling upon Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ – VZ) to publicly commit to network neutrality principles on its wireless networks gained significant momentum at the company’s annual meeting as shareholders supported the proposal by an even larger margin than their counterparts at AT&T did in a similar recent vote. The proposal at Verizon, which was offered and considered for the first time this year, attracted 7.9% of the votes cast by the company’s shareholders at the annual meeting in Huntsville, Alabama on May 3. …
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