A successful year of shareholder advocacy for Green Century Capital Management
Green Century Capital Management release
July 7, 2005
Green Century Capital Management, Inc. (Green Century), a
Boston-based environmentally responsible investment company, has
recently concluded its most active and successful year of shareholder
advocacy to date. Using its investments to encourage greater corporate
environmental responsibility, Green Century has pushed for and won
change on a broad range of environmental issues, from the fate of the
Arctic Refuge to genetically engineered food. Green Century filed
seven shareholder resolutions this year and engaged in dialogue with
an additional ten companies in its efforts to improve the long-term
financial and environmental performance of some of the nation’s
largest companies.
“We’re encouraged by the success of this year’s program in focusing
attention on critical environmental issues, and in persuading
companies to improve their environmental behavior,” said Amy Perry,
President of Green Century. “Shareholder advocacy is a key component
of our efforts to create a sustainable economy, in which the
environment is respected and protected, not sacrificed.”
Of particular note: Green Century played an important role in
achieving victories with three high-profile companies. Whole Foods
Market answered the call from shareholders to begin labelling all of
its private brand, “Everyday 365” products for genetically engineered
content, and Apple Computer agreed to offer free, in-store recycling
of its popular iPod music players. Finally, ConocoPhillips agreed to
join Chevron and BP plc in withdrawing its support from Arctic Power,
an industry lobbying group that promotes drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
Green Century’s 2005 Shareholder Advocacy Program:
- Wilderness Preservation: Green Century continues to work to convince
four of the world’s largest oil companies not to drill in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge. This year, Green Century filed resolutions
with Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Exxon Mobil. ConocoPhillips agreed
to withdraw from Arctic Power, an industry lobbying group that
promotes drilling in the Refuge. This was a significant step, and
Green Century withdrew its resolution as a result. Exxon Mobil remains
the last oil company supporting Arctic Power. A significant number of
shareholders voted in favor of Green Century’s proposals at Chevron
and Exxon Mobil. Nine percent voted in favor at Chevron; 8% voted in
favor at Exxon Mobil. - Genetically Engineered Foods: Green Century is working to convince
food companies not to use ingredients made with genetically engineered
ingredients that threaten human health and the environment, and to
tell consumers which products do or do not contain them. In response
to a resolution filed by Trillium Asset Management and co-filed by
Green Century, Whole Foods Market agreed to label its products as
described above. Green Century and a coalition of active shareholders
also engaged Kraft in dialogue concerning its use of GE ingredients.
Global Warming: Global warming is one of the great challenges of our
time. Green Century is working to solve this problem by convincing
companies to take action and to support responsible legislation to
reduce global warming pollution. Five percent of Ford shareholders
voted in favor of our resolution, which asks for more information
about the company’s anti-environmental lobbying efforts. Green Century
has also asked Hertz, a Ford subsidiary, to reduce the pollution from
its cars and trucks. Finally, Green Century has also engaged Amerada
Hess and XCel Energy and questioned their strategies for responding to
global warming. - Toxics & Waste Reduction: For over two years, Green Century has
participated in a shareholder group in dialogue with Dell Computer on
the environmental impact of its products. Dell has made a great deal
of progress in establishing effective recycling programs for its
products. We continue to speak with them on these issues. Recently,
Green Century won a significant victory when Apple Computer announced
that it would offer free recycling of iPods. Customers who bring an
old iPod to one the company’s retail stores will also receive a 10%
discount on a new iPod. This program was proposed by Green Century
when it spoke at Apple’s annual meeting in April. At the time, Apple
CEO Steve Jobs was defensive in his response, but it appears that the
business and environmental logic behind this program was too strong to
ignore. - Political Contributions: Companies often use their clout to obtain
insider deals from governments, or use their connections to cover up
risks to shareholders. Green Century supports transparency in
corporate political giving to reduce the opportunities that these
contributions will be used for unethical ends. Green Century co-filed
a resolution at Southern Company on this issue that received 10% of
the vote. - Chemical Security: American companies operate over 100 industrial
sites each of which could expose over one million people to dangerous
toxic chemicals in the case of an accident or terrorist attack. Green
Century supports an integrated program of security improvement and
toxics use reduction to decrease this threat. In 2005, we asked Dow
Chemical, Du Pont, Occidental Petroleum, Clorox, and Clean Harbors to
make improvements to their chemical security programs. These
engagements will continue in 2006.
During the years that Green Century has engaged in shareholder
advocacy efforts, the firm has helped to convince a variety of
corporations to improve their environmental behavior, on issues
ranging from wilderness protection to recycling programs to global
warming impacts.
Green Century Capital Management has been a leader in environmental
investing since 1991. Green Century believes that, in the long run,
companies that protect the environment can be more profitable than
companies that pollute.
