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 …
FactSet Updates Non-discrimination Policy Following Trillium’s Shareholder Engagement
On Friday, August 2, 2013, following dialogue with Trillium Asset Management (Trillium), financial information provider FactSet (NYSE: FDS) updated its employment and non-discrimination policies to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. Trillium believes that companies and workers benefit from consistent, corporate-wide efforts to prevent discrimination, ensuring a respectful and supportive atmosphere for all employees. “Despite being named a Fortune 100 “Best Company to Work For” in 2013, FactSet had lagged its sector peers including Thomson Reuters and MSCI Inc. in providing protections for gender identity and expression in its non-discrimination policy,” said Susan Baker of …
W.W. Grainger Adds Gender Identity and Expression Language to its Equal Opportunity Employment Guidelines
Following a brief dialogue with Trillium, W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) – which is a Fortune 500 company – has updated its Business Conduct Guidelines and employee handbook to explicitly prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression. Trillium believes that companies and workers benefit from consistent, corporate-wide, efforts to prevent discrimination, ensuring a respectful and supportive atmosphere for all employees. The Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index notes that nearly 70% of the Fortune 100 and 43% of the Fortune 500 prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression; an indication that companies are taking gender identity protections seriously. State …
Trillium One of 70 Business Amici to Challenge DOMA
Boston, November 2011 — Trillium Asset Management, LLC was proud to be listed among 70 major employers listed on an amicus brief in support of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) filed by Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). The brief addresses the burdens on business caused by DOMA, such as how it forces employers to treat employees with same-sex spouses disadvantageously compared to other married employees and imposes extra costs. Aetna, National Grid, Chubb, Google and Time Warner were some of the 60 other businesses represented by the brief, which was also signed by …
Seasonal Wrap-up: Trillium's 2011 Engagement Highlights
Trillium Asset Management, LLC, a Boston-based pioneer in the field of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, reported out today on the results of its 2011 proxy season engagements with nearly two dozen major U.S. corporations. (For a full listing of our 2011 Shareholder Proposals, scroll to the end of the page.) “A good portion of our dialogues and resolutions resulted in agreements with companies to improve policies and provide more transparency,” said Matthew Patsky, CEO of Trillium. “Both are helpful in assessing the environmental, social and governance risks and their financial impact on shareholders.” Trillium’s ESG program addressed a …
Still “Impactful” After All These Years
Jonas Kron, JD In the Winter 2011 issue of Investing For A Better World, our colleague Farnum Brown described shareholder advocacy as version 2.0 on SRI’s (socially responsible investment’s) travels towards 3.0, and discussed the importance of directly pressing companies to improve their environmental and social impacts. Similarly, Amy Domini of Domini Social Investments recently wrote passionately in the Huffington Post about the importance of shareholder advocacy as a meaningful way for investors to have a positive impact on the world. Both pieces touched upon the ongoing debate about what to call our field. What was once “socially responsible” or …
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