Investors Ask EPA to Reconsider Emissions Standards for PVC Industry
Trillium Asset Management was one of seventeen investors, with a combined total of more than $9.8 billion assets under management, who recently wrote to Lisa P. Jackson, Administrator of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urging her to reconsider the final rules that will set national emission standards for the PVC industry. The letter states, in part: “As long term investors of diversified portfolios we believe strong and consistent protections of public health and welfare are essential to long term economic growth, and in turn the prospects of companies in our portfolios…In 2011 and in 2012 investors held informative dialogues with EPA …
Media Advisory: New Report and Webinar: Total Portfolio Activation – A Framework for Creating Social and Environmental Impact Across Asset Classes
Boston, MA & San Francisco, CA, August 6, 2012 – Tides and Trillium Asset Management, LLC (Trillium) will host a webinar with Tellus Institute on Wednesday, August 8, 2012, from 12:00 – 12:30 PM EST to review the new white paper: Total Portfolio Activation – A Framework for Creating Social and Environmental Impact across Asset Classes. Prepared by Tellus Institute, the paper provides concrete steps to help any institutional investor begin working toward a fuller activation of their portfolio in support of their mission, drawing upon specific examples of investors who have already activated assets in certain asset classes. …
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 …
Citizens Groups Rally Behind Trillium, Green Century Resolutions
We’re willing to bet that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) doesn’t often draw picketers, but on March 26, a group organized under the banner of the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (or CAPS)1 stood outside the SEC’s normally quiet offices and demanded the swift implementation of a proposal requiring publicly traded companies to disclose details of the agency’s political spending. Two weeks earlier, at a press conference broadcast on C-Span, a coalition of citizens groups2 announced plans to transform this year’s stockholder meetings into a “shareholder spring” of protest against corporate involvement in politics. Bob Edgar, president of …
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