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History of Walden Asset Management/SRI
SOCIAL TOPICS: History of Walden Asset Management/SRI
Advocacy Program for 2001 Published, Spring 2001 Walden has expanded its Shareholder Advocacy Program in 2001 in a dramatic way. Building on a quarter century tradition of interacting with companies on corporate social responsibility issues, we are working on more issues and with more companies than ever before. Walden filed and co-filed 32 resolutions this year and is the lead proponent involved in dialogue and negotiations with 15 of those companies (see box on page 4). We see our Shareholder Advocacy Program as a central part of our commitment to our clients and the public, using our voice as investors to urge corporations to act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Global corporations are increasingly having a major impact on people’s lives around the world. Whether it is their effect on the environment or employment patterns, corporations—individually and jointly—often have more power than many governments. This is not to suggest a conspiracy theory but a simple, sober assessment of new global economic realities. Refusing to recognize and address this reality would be to replicate the behavior of the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand. The 32 companies with which Walden has filed resolutions this year include some new companies and new issues for us, but also companies where we have been knocking at the door for years. For example, we had been urging The Home Depot to make full disclosure of its diversity programs and statistics even before the company settled a more than $100 million gender discrimination suit in 1998. Since then, we have maintained a lead role in a coalition pressing the retailing giant to divulge fully its equal employment opportunity numbers. Just as we go to press, Home Depot has committed to comprehensive disclosure—testimony to the strength of investor perseverance as well as substantial progress at Home Depot. Walden continues to challenge several companies to ensure that their merchandise is not made under sweatshop conditions and that they effectively monitor the factories. We have joined 37 other investors in challenging Wal-Mart to eliminate sweatshop conditions in factories that produce its products. Although Wal-Mart has recently upgraded its internal monitoring policies and procedures, this past fall a Business Week investigation found serious labor abuses, including the beating of workers, at a supplier plant in China. The sweatshop debate has become a front and center public issue. Companies are being pressed by students, universities, consumers, unions, other companies, and shareholders to pay employees a living wage and end abuse in manufacturing facilities. We believe pressure from investors emphasizes to companies the importance of strong human rights protections. Walden is also becoming more involved in corporate governance issues. Although we have historically had a strict set of corporate governance guidelines for voting company proxies, we have decided to step up our commitment to good governance and are co-filing a resolution with numerous IBM employees asking IBM to adopt a fair policy for employee retirement benefits. Our shareholder advocacy doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. For example, we are active shareholders with companies headquartered in the Netherlands, Japan, and the United Kingdom, just as we are with those in the United States. This year, Walden has joined with environmental organizations and other social investment leaders to file with U.K.-based BP Amoco a resolution to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (see Ramping Up Advocacy Across Shores, Spring 2001 and The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Keep It Off Limits!, Spring 2001 for more information on these issues.) Our dialogues and resolutions not only send a message to management that these issues are important to our clients, they become the basis for further dialogue and agreements leading to change. This year Walden has withdrawn resolutions from several companies when management pledged to disclose information or change policies or procedures. Among the companies responding positively is CVS. The pharmacy chain has pledged to phase out the sale of mercury thermometers because of the toxic pollution caused by their disposal. After a thoughtful dialogue between investors and Bank of America, led by Walden, the company agreed to prepare a diversity report including hard data on where women and people of color are on the Bank of America job ladder. Our resolution to Lehman Brothers on predatory lending was withdrawn after a positive meeting regarding their active opposition to these practices. And AIG, in response to a resolution urging a new policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, agreed to amend their personnel policies to include this stipulation. (see Investing for Social Change, Spring 2001 for more on Walden's win-win strategies) Walden is filing these resolutions as part of a much larger coalition of concerned investors who are dedicated to pushing corporations to conduct business responsibly. The lion’s share of the leadership comes from religious investors through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) who have been involved in shareholder advocacy for the past 30 years. We are pleased to be in partnership with numerous religious investors, as well as with foundations, unions, New York City Pension Funds, IBM employees, and United for a Fair Economy, among others. Leadership in social investing is no longer simply a matter of avoiding investing in companies conflicting with our social values. While social screening is an integral part, we believe this leadership is increasingly defined by the effective use of shareholder advocacy. Clearly, social investors can and are making a definitive difference in corporate board rooms.
Walden’s 2001 Shareholder Advocacy Program
The Environment
Diversity and Discrimination Issues
Sweatshops/ Human Rights Overseas
Corporate Governance
Health *Resolution was withdrawn because company complied substantially with request. |
