Our latest email newsletter addressed the issue of sustainable toys, including how companies, such as Matel and Hasboro, are making sure that their products aren’t destroying the rainforest. In addition to improving packaging and paper sourcing techniques, some companies have made sustainability the entire focus of their toy lines, manufacturing their products from renewable sources and recycled materials. Need a green gift? Check out the list in our newsletter as well as Green America’s recommendations for eco-friendly toy companies. Read more
And the debate continues on political donations
One of our Advocates, The Center for Political Accountability (CPA), is the topic of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal regarding the hot issue of political donations.
The WSJ article, written by Brad Smith, defends the right of corporations to secretly fund political campaigns. Smith attacks the CPA and their push towards ‘transparency and oversight’ regarding political donations. Read more
Their lawsuit, your loss
Last week, Jack Ucciferri from Harrington Investments published an interesting article focusing on how shareholders are ultimately responsible for director indemnification, especially when they represent big banking corporations. Jack explains, “In layman’s terms, this means that bank shareholders (often unwittingly) pay for what amount to licenses for these public menaces to be shielded from the costs associated with the sociopathic behavior of the corporations they run.” Read more
Investing is just about the profits. I have a dog.
I have a dog. I got him two years ago to provide me company, and he’s become my most reliable friend. Winter is coming, and we’re going to spend many evenings next to the fire; he on his cushion, I on my chair. And this will be good.
I live in the country, and my dog spends his afternoons roaming the neighborhood. He visits an elderly neighbor’s house and digs up her gardens. He rips laundry from her lines and drags it through the mud. He torments her cat. Lately, he’s been barking loudly at her window. I’ve never met my neighbor, and I never will. No one else will ever know about my dog’s activities — just me and my neighbor, and she’ll never say a word. Read more
Board shakeups at HP and Oshkosh
Recently, activist investing has gotten some attention at Oshkosh and Hewlett Packard, but both companies aren’t looking at the situation in the same way. In October, we sent out a Corporate Governance Update focused on activist investing, highlighting why these investors can be good or bad for the company. Perhaps Oshkosh and HP are prime examples of those two different situations.
A not-so-typical advocate group raising eyebrows
Before the Occupiers began making waves on Wall Street, an unusual group of advocates were more quietly raising eyebrows — Sister Nora and her team of approximately 540 Catholic nuns known as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.
In fact, Sister Nora and her team have gone to bat with Kroger regarding farm workers and their rights, McDonald’s over obesity in children and Wells Fargo concerning their lending practices. Most recently, they even went head to head with Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s most powerful investments banks. Sister Nora met with three top executives at Goldman Sachs on topics such as protecting consumers, reining in executive pay, increasing corporate transparence and considering the poor and unfortunate in their business plans.
Hooray! Female CEOs set a new record!
We came across this USA Today article last week and thought it was an important one to share since we have addressed this topic before on our blog and Social Issues Update.
According to the article, by the end of the year, there will be 18 women running Fortune 500 companies. This beats the previous record of 16 females. Just in the last few months, three new female CEOs have been named: Meg Whitman for Hewlett-Packard, Denise Morrison for Campbell Soup and Gracia Martore for Gannett.
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Proxy access made easy
Earlier this summer, we posted a quick recap of the SEC’s progress with proxy access rule 14a-11. While 14a-11 was ultimately shot down, preexisting rule 14a-8 has recently gotten the spotlight. The previous 14a-8 allows shareholders to use the good ol’ fashion resolution process to submit proxy access bylaw changes. Simply, shareholders owning $2,000 worth of stock have the opportunity to submit a resolution to the company and have it appear on the proxy materials distributed to shareholders, thus giving them “proxy access.”
Understanding the legal jargon and submitting a shareholder proposal can be a little daunting and downright overwhelming, so here’s something to make it a little easier: the Model Proxy Access Proposal. The proposal was designed by the United States Proxy Exchange (USPX), a grassroots movement run and funded entirely by individual investors for the benefit of shareholders. Their model proposal is simply a template for shareholders to use to include director nominations on the company proxy ballot. Read more
Occupy the boardroom?
Protestors are Occupying Wall Street with many beefs about the current system. Working outside the system, which many of the protestors believe to be rigged against them, and armed mainly with tents and sit-ins, they’ve successfully nudged the national discourse in the last weeks.
However, there are two tools they can use to achieve their means from within: Read more