Tag Archives: investor network

Business as the Cause and Solution of Global Crises

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Gary Hirshberg
Gary Hirshberg
CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with Gary Hirshberg, CEO of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, and author of Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World. Hirshberg believes that business is a necessary force for creating a sustainable economy and society, as outlined in his book. Yet he admits that business is a primary cause of our current unsustainable economy, a seeming contradiction that he explains in our conversation.

Stonyfield Farm

Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World

—Chevron Donates $2 m in Disaster Relief to Burma but New Report Charges the Company with Abetting Human Rights Abuses
—Military Contractor in Iraq Hires Translators Who Can’t Translate, Putting Iraqi and US Lives at Risk
—Climate Counts Releases 2008 Ranking of Commitment by Companies to Reversing Climate Change

Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk, provides commentary on a recent Ceres report examining how mainstream mutual funds vote on shareholder resolutions that urge companies to address climate change. A 2004 SEC rule requires mutual funds to disclose their proxy voting records each year. The report finds that mainstream mutual fund opposition to climate resolutions is thawing–but ironically, support for climate resolutions is also decreasing. Filling this gap is abstentions, which have doubled from 2004 to 2007. For the sake of disclosure, CWR co-host Bill Baue co-authored the report.

Ceres

Ceres Report: Mutual Funds and Climate Change: Opposition to Climate Change Resolutions Begins to Thaw

Field Report from the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk

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CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue attended the conference, hosted by investor-environmentalist coalition Ceres and its Investor Network on Climate Risk. Rheannon speaks with British Telecom Pension Scheme Trustee Donald MacDonald about the impact of war on climate change and what institutional investors can do to address it.

Alisa Gravitz
Alisa Gravitz
Baue speaks with Co-op America CEO Alisa Gravitz about its multi-tiered approach to address climate change through member company actions, investor advocacy, and consumer activism. And Ian Gray of Ceres speaks with McKinsey Global Institute Director Diana Farrell about its new report on energy efficiency. We also excerpt highlights from the presentations by Harvard Professor and Woods Hole Research Center Director John Holdren outlining the current science on climate change and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney placing climate change in the social context.

Institutional Investor Summit on Climate Risk

McKinsey Global Institute report: The Case for Investing in Energy Productivity

John Holdren presentation: Global Climatic Disruption

John Sweeney speech

CWR Headlines: Over a quarter of Fidelity fund shareholders support genocide-free resolution.

Investors Against Genocide

Investors Against Genocide webpage on Fidelity resolution vote

19 March 2008, Associated Press: “Fidelity Holders Defeat Investment Limit”

19 March 2008, Reuters: “Fidelity funds reject genocide-linked proposal”

Vermont State Treasurer Uses Investing to Leverage Corporate Responsibility

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Jeb Spaulding
Jeb Spaulding
Vermont State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding delivered the opening address at the launching of the Marlboro College Graduate Center MBA in Managing for Sustainability program in Vermont where CWR co-host Bill Baue teaches. The talk was entitled, “Sustainability and State Finance: Strategic Decision-Making and ‘Win-Win’ Strategies.” Spaulding discussed a number of different ways the state uses its investment assets to leverage corporate sustainability and responsibility, from aggressively voting its proxies to filing shareholder resolutions addressing issues such as Sudan and climate change to participating in the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of institutional investors launched by Ceres in 2003 to promote sustainable business practices. He also explains the complexities of implementing green investing through board-run state pension funds.

Vermont State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding

“Vermont State Treasurer to Speak at Marlboro College Graduate Center”

Marlboro College Graduate Center MBA in Managing for Sustainability

October 8, 2007 SocialFunds article: “Investors, States, and Activists Petition Securities and Exchange Commission To Mandate Climate Risk Disclosure”

September 21, 2006 SocialFunds article: “Pennsylvania Treasurer Keys into Clean Tech Investing and Green Screens”

April 14, 2005 SocialFunds article: “Vermont Issues Call to Investment Managers for Environmentally Sustainable Portfolio”

March 25, 2005 SocialFunds article: “Shareowner Activists on Sustainability Take Baby Steps Into Sustainability Screening”

Investor Network on Climate Risk

Ceres

New Investor Network on Toxics in Products

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richard-liroffRichard Liroff, Ph.D. talks about a new investor network concerned with reducing unnecessarily toxic chemicals in products. DuPont shareholders broadly support resolution calling for the company to report on options to speed the elimination of PFOA production and use (a chemical used in producing Teflon as well as grease and stain resistant coatings on carpet, textiles and food wraps).

In addition, we hear a live report from Simon Billeness at an Amnesty International protest regarding the role of Yahoo in jailing a Chinese dissident.

More information:

investorenvironmentalhealthnetwork.org