Trillium’s Q2 2016 Market Commentary & Q1/Q2 2016 Advocacy Highlights Available
July 15, 2016: Trillium’s Q2 2016 Market Commentary & Q1/Q2 Shareholder Advocacy Highlights are now available to download. “The U.S. economic outlook is stronger than current market sentiment and bond yields indicate. U.S. economic growth continues to be solid, even if slow. Job creation is slowing, as would be expected as the economy nears full employment; the current unemployment rate of 4.9% is the lowest since 2007. We are slightly less positive about anticipated equity returns than in prior quarters, due to the higher level of uncertainty resulting from the Brexit vote, and our concerns about the persistent low inflation, …
Food Waste is an Emerging Sustainable Agriculture Issue
By Allan Pearce, Shareholder Advocate Given the tremendous environmental impact that agricultural and food companies have, food system advocacy has been a mainstay of Trillium’s shareholder activism for decades. Trillium has focused on sustainable agriculture as it directly contributes to, and is impacted by, climate change, through deforestation and the use of fossil fuels to fertilize and harvest. In addition, our agricultural production systems use 50% of U.S. land and 80% of our freshwater. Taking into account the resource demands of our agricultural systems, one might be tempted to think that we would waste as little of the food we …
Whole Foods -Food Waste (2016)
Whereas: Approximately 40% of food produced in the U.S. goes uneaten, contributing to myriad social and environmental problems, and often ending up in landfills. Food decomposing in landfills emits methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times as potent as CO2. In total, approximately 4.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 23% of U.S. methane emissions result from food waste. If global food waste were a country, its emissions would be 3rd, behind only China and the United States. 25% of water and 31% of land in the U.S. is used to produce food that is wasted throughout the supply chain. Nearly …
Ceres: Shareholders Seeking Stronger Responses from Companies as Climate Change Concerns Deepen
Record high climate-related resolutions seek improvements on issues like greenhouse gas reductions, flaring cutbacks and increased sustainable palm oil sourcing March 7, 2014: Motivated by mounting scientific evidence that human activity is a leading cause of climate change; major institutional investors are pushing for stronger actions from companies in climate-related shareholder resolutions in the 2014 proxy season. Led by Walden Asset Management, the New York State Comptroller’s Office, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, Calvert Investments, the Connecticut Treasurer’s Office, Trillium Asset Management, Mercy Investments and Green Century Capital Management, 35 institutional investors have filed 142 resolutions in a coordinated …
Trillium Asset Management Sells All Holdings in Range Resources
October 2, 2013 // Boston, MA: Trillium Asset Management’s (Trillium) Investment Management Committee recently decided to sell all client holdings in the natural gas company Range Resources (NYSE: RRC) and to remove the company from our “Buy List”. Given the importance of operational efficiency to Range Resources’ profitability, as well as the regulatory, environmental, and social license risks facing the company, Trillium believes that the company’s current level of disclosure related to methane leakage is woefully inadequate. Leaking methane also represents lost revenue and raises the potential for increased regulatory and legal expense. Better transparency and the use of best …
Trillium’s 2013 Corporate Engagement Highlights
Over the course of the 2013 proxy season that just ended, Trillium directly engaged over two dozen major U.S. corporations with shareholder proposals and hundreds more via sign-on letters and other forms of outreach. Our shareholder proposal engagements addressed a wide range of concerns including climate change, human rights, discrimination in the workplace, a free and open Internet, privacy and data security, financial institution responsibility, political and lobbying spending, and board diversity. While we cannot cover all of our work here, following are key highlights. Climate Change Fugitive methane emissions from natural gas production have a 72X greater impact on …
109 Shareholder Resolutions Related to Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Use Yield Strong Results During 2013 Proxy Season
Investors win company commitments to address flaring and fracking; carbon bubble and methane emission resolutions win strong support BOSTON, MA // July 25, 2013: Investors achieved noteworthy victories during this year’s shareholder proxy season, with a near record 109 shareholder resolutions filed with 93 U.S. companies on hydraulic fracturing, flaring, fossil fuel reserve risks and other climate- and sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The majority of resolutions filed within the energy sector focus on strategies recently promoted by the International Energy Agency in its Redrawing the Energy-Climate Map report to reduce sector-wide greenhouse gas emissions at no net economic cost, and …
The Hidden Climate Impact of Natural Gas
Investing For a Better World – Spring 2013 Energy is big business in the U.S. and is also—by far—the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In the hunt for lower-carbon energy investments, investors have flocked to natural gas. And why not? It’s half as carbon intensive as coal, which has traditionally been the fuel of choice in the electric power sector. But a closer look at natural gas reveals a hidden and heavy carbon footprint from “fugitive” emissions. The primary component of natural gas is methane, the simple hydrocarbon compound you learned about in chemistry class. What you may not …
Sierra Club Foundation: Why We Choose SRI
Ginny Quick, Chief Financial Officer The Sierra Club Foundation Investing For a Better World: Spring 2013 The Sierra Club Foundation is a public 501(c)(3) charity whose mission is to help educate, inspire, and empower humanity to preserve the natural and human environment. We achieve this mission by raising funds for tax-exempt charitable purposes and by managing these funds so that future generations will inherit a healthy planet with wild places left to explore. The Sierra Club Foundation does not manage its own programs, but rather provides financial support for programs that protect and restore the environment, primarily by serving as …