Investors Call on Olympic Sponsors to End Their Silence, Defend Russian LGBT Rights
February 6, 2014: New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, as trustee of the $160.7 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, along with New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and a coalition of 19 investors, released letters written to four major corporate sponsors of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia that failed to respond to an earlier request they use their influence to ensure the protection of the human rights of Russian citizens, as well as athletes and visitors to the Olympics. The letters follow an initial outreach to ten companies in December regarding Russia’s recently enacted …
Trillium Joins Investor Group Urging Olympic Corporate Sponsors to Speak Out for Russian LGBT Rights
DECEMBER 5, 2013: New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today that the $160.7 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, leading a coalition of investors with $327 billion of assets under management, has sent letters to ten major corporate sponsors of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia urging the sponsors to use their influence to ensure the human rights of Russian citizens, as well as athletes and visitors to the Olympics. The investors, including New York City Comptroller John C. Liu and a coalition of 19 investment firms, acted in response to Russia’s recently enacted laws …
Producer Responsibility for Packaging – Proctor & Gamble (2012)
WHEREAS product packaging is a significant consumer of natural resources and energy, and a major source of waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More than half of U.S. product packaging –37 million tons – is discarded in landfills or burned rather than recycled. Packaging debris migrates to oceans where it damages fisheries, tourism and marine life. Paper and packaging comprise 43% of U.S. landfill waste. Nestle Waters North America says plastic bottles are the largest contributor to its carbon foot print; Coca-Cola Co. reports packaging is the largest part of the carbon footprint of several products. A recent analysis of …
Procter & Gamble – Extended Producer Responsibility (2011)
WHEREAS Product packaging is a significant consumer of natural resources and energy, and a major source of waste and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More than half of U.S. product packaging –37 million tons – is discarded in landfills or burned rather than recycled. Packaging comprises nearly one-third of all U.S. landfill waste. Nestle Waters North America says plastic bottles are the largest contributor to its carbon foot print; Coca-Cola Co. reports packaging is the largest part of the carbon footprint of several products. A recent analysis of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data estimates that the energy needed to produce and …
2008 Advocacy Review
For our 2008 advocacy efforts, we’re pleased to report a fair amount of progress — never as much as we’d like (we’d like superhero powers), but enough to confirm that shareholder activism remains a potent tool for change. Climate change. Our shareholder resolution at ConocoPhillips requesting a report on the environmental and social impacts of tar sands drilling won almost 28% of the vote, an impressive vote in this arena. Our resolution at Bank of America addressing its financing of coal-fired power plants and mountaintop coal removal was deemed inadmissible by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but we eventually …
Open MIC: Setting New Standards for Media in the Digital Age
Shock jock Don Imus recently captured headlines and focused national attention on the question of media responsibility. He did so with a racist, misogynist jibe at a women’s basketball team that drew widespread censure from civil rights activists, media watchdogs and, most importantly, advertisers like GM and Proctor & Gamble. Suddenly the airwaves were crackling with debate over the significance of Imus’ offense, the public’s response, and how his corporate employer, CBS, should deal with the situation. At Trillium we’ve been thinking a lot about how responsible investors should answer questions like these. What is the social responsibility of media …
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