America’s most just companies

Just Companies

America’s most Just Companies according to Just Capital are: Intel, Texas Instruments, NVIDIA, Microsoft, IBM, Accenture, Cisco Systems, Alphabet (Google), salesforce, and Symantec.

Just Capital’s rankings serve as a report card for corporate America, providing unbiased data on how the largest U.S. companies perform on the issues Americans prioritize. To produce the rankings, they:

• poll Americans to identify the issues that matter most
• evaluate companies on the issues people care about
• rank America’s largest publicly-traded corporations

Green America 2017 SRI Victories

Green America posted Social Investing Victories Of 2017. They highlighted many big differences that impact investors made this past year, advancing causes ranging from climate change to board diversity to immigration justice. Here are some highlights:

• In response to a proposal filed by As You Sow, KFC agreed to only purchase chicken raised without antibiotics deemed important to human medicine by the end of 2018.
• the world’s third largest consumer-goods company, Unilever, announced that it would transition to 100 percent recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging by 2025.
• At ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum, a majority of investors, urged the companies to share more information about how action taken by governments around the world to cut greenhouse-gas emissions will affect the market for fossil-fuel products.
• Workplace diversity was also a major focus, as shareholders at Aflac, Dentsply Sirona, EOG Resources, Fifth Third Bancorp, Jones Lang LeSalle, Verisk Analytics, and Visa all successfully withdrew proposals due to companies’ agreement to take action on the issue.
• Green America and allies have been calling on the 40-plus banks financing the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to pull out. In the last year, two banks helping to finance the DAPL have stopped.
• The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) application fee was $495 dollars. Self-Help Credit Union introduced the DACA Loan, which offers undocumented immigrants a way to pay for their DACA application without any interest or fees.

As You SOW – Corporate Governance

As You SOW’s blog post comments on BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s letter to major corporations, “Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose…to prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

This is welcome to hear but the question is: will the voting power of BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, etc finally be used in a consistent way, empowering shareholders to create deep transformation in corporate policies and practices that leads to the ultimate goal, a win-win for corporate profits and a just and sustainable world? It remains to be seen.