Editor’s Note: This is a movement that I’ve been following for about a year; in a nutshell, ethical investors are becoming a force for change in corporate boardrooms and making a real difference.* Each year in the US, Ceres and Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility take companies to task for failing to live up their responsibilities as good corporate citizens.
A coalition of US investors has put slow-moving fossil fuel companies — including Exxon Mobil and Massey Energy — on a Climate Watch list claiming that their long-term competitiveness will be hurt by their inaction on global warming.
“For a company in a major emitting sector … to not be thinking about how they are going to address a regulated environment creates red flags for investors,” says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a Boston-based coalition of investors and environmentalists. She added that these companies have lagged in taking action on climate change even though US President Barack Obama plans to regulate GHG emissions. “Companies that miss this trend will be setting themselves up to fail in the 21st century low-carbon economy.” Ceres has many investors following the Climate Watch list, and they manage a total of $1.9 trillion in assets. They expect energy companies to manage current realities by smartly by moving into alternative energy markets like wind and solar power, and taking positive steps to assess their climate change risks.
Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, working on behalf of 75 institutional investors, and the group has filed 63 global warming resolutions with the nine companies on the Climate Watch list, as well as a few others. The group is also targeting companies investing in Alberta’s tar sands, including Chevron Corp and Canadian Natural Resources.
“Extraction of oil from oil sands is a risky proposition and will likely in the long term be a disaster for both investors and inhabitants of an increasingly warming planet,” says Margaret Weber, chairwoman of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which coordinates shareholder filings with Ceres.
The companies on the Climate Watch list include:
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Other companies that need to do much, much better:
AutoTransportation: Avis/Budget, Hertz
Banks: Ameriprise, Citigroup, Fifth Third Bancorp, State Street
Building and Big Box Companies: Bed, Bath & Beyond, Boston Properties, General Growth, Home Depot, Las Vegas Sands, Lennar, Pulte Homes, Ryland
Coal: Alpha Natural Resources, Foundation Coal, International Coal
Electric Power: Dominion, Dynegy, Idacorp, Mirant, NV Energy (formerly Sierra Pacific)
Forestry: International Paper, Meredith, RR Donnelly
Oil & Gas: ConocoPhillips, Haliburton, Noble Energy, Oneok, Range Resources, South Jersey Industries, Spectra
Other S&P 500 Companies: Apple, Aqua America, Assurant, Broadcom, Denbury Resources, Dover Corporation, Flowserve, Kadant, MetLife, Middleby, Novell, SanDisk, Southwest Airlines, St. Jude, Stryker, Valmont.
Canadian Companies: Great-West Life & Annuity
Wow, I had no idea about Apple. I feel betrayed. Since they keep advertising they have the greenest laptop, I thought they were environmentally conscious. We also fly Southwest when we go on vacation because they have the cheapest fares. I guess we need to do more research on the companies we purchase items and services from.