January 2015: Over the past six years, Trillium has written about shareholder advocacy efforts to bring environmental justice to the community of Mossville, LA. At its peak, the state was home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturers, four of them clustered near Mossville. In all, 14 industrial facilities operated in and around the predominantly African-American community. With a $21 billion price tag, Sasol* is making the largest foreign investment in the state’s history. The company is building a facility, with a foot print extending into Mossville, which will convert natural gas to a variety of …

JANUARY 30, 2015: ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, has finally expanded their Equal Opportunity Employment and non-discrimination policies to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”. In 1999, Exxon merged with Mobil and stripped away the LGBT non-discrimination policies that had been in place at Mobil. Trillium Asset Management (Trillium) filed its first shareholder proposal with ExxonMobil regarding the company’s non-discrimination policies in 2001 and has regularly filed similar proposals since. Trillium’s current shareholder proposal with ExxonMobil*, which was co-filed with the New York State Common Retirement Fund, will be withdrawn in recognition …

Editor’s Note: The following opinion piece, co-authored by Trillium’s Susan Baker, along with Lauren Compere of Boston Common Asset Management, Bennett Freeman of Calvert Investments and Patricia Jurewicz of Responsible Sourcing Network, was published in Responsible Investor on January 23, 2015. JANUARY 23, 2014: As a group of responsible investors with a keen interest in Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection and Wall Street Reform Act—known informally as the Conflict Minerals Provision—and the associated campaign to bring conflict-free mineral sourcing to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Great Lakes Region, we write to respond to Responsible Investor’s recent …

By Jonas D. Kron, Esq., Director of Shareholder Advocacy It is well established that methane emissions are a serious climate problem. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas—as much as 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year time period. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading international body for the assessment of climate change, estimates that about 30% of the warming we will experience over the next two decades as a result of this year’s greenhouse gas emissions will come from methane. The entire oil and gas supply chain (from production through downstream uses) is the …

JANUARY 15, 2015: Trillium’s Q4 2014 Market Commentary and Advocacy Highlights are now available to download. “With a positive outlook for the U.S. economy, increasing consumer confidence, falling unemployment, and extremely quiescent inflation, our outlook for U.S. stocks should be extremely positive, and we are, indeed, positive. We continue our positive outlook on U.S. financial markets, despite increased potential risks. We expect U.S. stocks to return about 5% to 6% more than U.S. bonds. While we do believe the Federal Reserve will begin to raise short term interest rates mid-year, U.S. intermediate and long term rates will likely be constrained …

JANUARY 13, 2015 // NEW YORK, NY: Investors in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) are once again pressing the company’s board of directors to report on the business risks arising from the company’s opposition to open Internet and network neutrality principles. A shareholder proposal which last year won 26.4% of the shareholder vote – representing $30.6 billion of Verizon shares – has been resubmitted for consideration at Verizon’s 2015 annual meeting. The proposal comes as the Federal Communications Commission is reportedly preparing to propose new open Internet and network neutrality rules at its next public meeting on February 26. Verizon has …

JANUARY 2015: The Blade, a newspaper based in Toledo, OH, recently published an opinion piece by Trillium’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy, Jonas Kron. Jonas writes: “In the past few months, companies such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yelp, Yahoo, and Occidental Petroleum have said they will no longer be members or supporters of the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, an organization of more than 2,000 conservative state lawmakers and corporations. These companies join about 90 others that have cut their ties to ALEC. Climate change and clean energy are among the central issues that are causing this rethinking, which reflects …

JANUARY 7, 2015: Trillium Asset Management, Walden Asset Management, Boston Common Asset Management, and Calvert Investments are pleased to announce they have successfully withdrawn their shareholder proposal at Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) regarding greenhouse gas emissions and climate change policy. The proposal was withdrawn following several commitments from the company including resuming participation in the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project). In addition, Costco’s next sustainability report in 2015 will include a discussion of the company’s approach to energy use within the context of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommendations and the Copenhagen Accord’s agreement to attempt to limit global warming …

  JANUARY 2, 2015: Portfolio 21 has merged with Trillium Asset Management. Trillium has assumed responsibility for the Portfolio 21 brand and the management of the Portfolio 21 Global Equity Fund. Both Trillium and Portfolio 21 were founded in 1982 and integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into the investment process as a way to identify the companies best positioned to deliver strong long-term performance. Members of the Portfolio 21 investment team, including Jim Madden, Tony Tursich, Beth Williamson, and Emily Lethenstrom are now Trillium employees. A merger of the two companies will strengthen the depth of our current …