Avoiding companies that are large GHG emitters won’t help the planet or your portfolio.
We, the undersigned businesses, organizations and investors, are writing to you to convey our united support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice program.
As a voluntary partnership program, Safer Choice works collaboratively with the business community to move safer products and chemicals into the marketplace, creating an incentive for ongoing innovation.
Read the full statement and the list of signatories below.
Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility announced they had filed 60 shareholder proposals for the 2025 proxy season calling for increased disclosures and strengthened oversight of corporate political activities at a diverse set of companies and sectors. These proposals included 32 resolutions on lobbying, 23 on political election spending, and five asking companies to assess if their lobbying on climate issues is consistent with their stated climate goals and objectives. You can read more about these proposals in ICCR’s 2025 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide.
The vast majority of companies engage in various forms of public policy advocacy to influence legislative and regulatory decisions, primarily through lobbying and campaign contributions. This advocacy takes place at all levels of government, ranging from municipal and state levels to federal legislative and regulatory processes. Open Secrets reported that total annual corporate lobbying expenditures surpassed $5.5 billion in 2024 and $6.2 billion in 2023, with the pharmaceutical, tech, financial services, and oil & gas sectors among the top spenders, either through direct lobbying or indirectly via third-party organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber). Additionally, the Chamber alone invested $823 million in lobbying activities from 2015 to 2024.
Through their memberships in trade associations like the Chamber and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and their donations to Super PACs, 527 committees, “social welfare” organizations, and model legislation groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), corporations wield considerable influence on many issues.
“Companies exercise considerable power in their direct lobbying and indirectly through trade associations,” said Matthew Illian, Director of Responsible Investing for the United Church Funds, which held successful dialogues with four companies leading to the withdrawal of their proposals. “Investors are urging full transparency as well as careful evaluation of whether corporate lobbying activities align with a company’s stated values and priorities, as any misalignment may create reputational risk. We are pleased to see a number of companies responding positively to these appeals, resulting in withdrawal agreements and improved corporate responsibility.”
One such company responding positively to investor engagement is AbbVie. “Over the years AbbVie has incrementally added to its lobbying spending disclosure and also did not renew membership in four trade associations. We believe these actions help to address some of the risks, which is our goal as investors, and this year we were pleased to come to a productive agreement and withdrew the resolution,” said Zevin’s Marcela Pinilla, Director of Sustainable Investing.
Said Tim Smith, ICCR’s Sr. Policy Advisor, “Some corporations have significant influence over public policy issues and must evaluate if this advocacy is truly in the public interest. This is particularly true for climate lobbying,” Smith added. “Companies that lobby against sensible climate policy are engaging in short-sighted behavior that delays urgently needed action. Any delay in enacting climate-forward policies will exacerbate its negative impacts and increase the cost to address them.”
“In this political environment where changes in climate policies are coming fast and furious, it’s critical for companies to clearly articulate their climate public policy priorities and harmonize their lobbying activities with protecting those priorities,” said Andrea Ranger, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Trillium Asset Management. “If they are not doing so, they may be letting trade associations, for example, advocate against the progressive climate laws, regulations, and programs they need to meet their decarbonization goals.”
ICCR members first filed proposals questioning corporate political activity in 1974, and since 2011, investors have submitted approximately 600 proposals seeking expanded lobbying reporting. These proposals generally receive strong shareholder support. This year, investors filed 32 lobbying proposals; however, early in the season, Air Products challenged its resolution at the SEC. Breaking from past practice, the SEC sided with the company and allowed the resolution to be omitted. This decision resulted in a surge of over 13 additional successful challenges by companies citing similar arguments.
However, many companies continued constructive lobbying discussions with shareholder proponents, which led to expanded disclosure and the successful withdrawal of resolutions at eight companies. Moreover, the proposals will appear on the proxy ballots of six companies to be voted on at annual meetings this spring.
Investors have also engaged portfolio companies around their donations to political candidates, citing the danger of corporate capture of government policy- and regulation-making with the potential to favor corporate activities over the interests of the voting public. This year, investors filed 23 proposals seeking increased disclosures around corporate political donations.
“Companies need to pay attention to the impact and risks of their political spending,” said Bruce Freed, President of the Center for Political Accountability (CPA). “CPA has several resources to help guide companies and their investors including its Corporate Underwriters report which examines how company political spending has reshaped state politics and created serious risks for companies, shareholders, and our democracy, and our Guide to Corporate Political Spending and Guide to Becoming a Model Code Company which give management and directors a framework for approaching, governing and assessing political spending to safeguard companies.”
Added Smith, “ICCR members and other responsible investors have long petitioned companies to expand disclosure and oversight and to adopt standards guiding their corporate political activities to ensure they are responsible. As long as companies participate in lobbying and political spending activities, we expect shareholder proposals on these topics will continue to be filed.”
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn, Bsky and X.
ICCR has been publishing the Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide annually since 1974 as a way to educate and build support for member proposals. In our Guide, you will find all ICCR member-sponsored proposals for 2025 corporate proxies along with a preliminary overview of the proxy season and short features from proponents about their engagements on key environmental and social issues. Please feel free to share this resource widely with your networks. And, if you are an investor, we urge you to exercise your shareholder rights by voting your proxies.
WASHINGTON – ISSA has joined a coalition of over 200 businesses and industry groups to express their strong support for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice program.
Political situation will see investors give companies more flexibility on communication around sustainability efforts.
Hundreds of religious communities have joined with businesses, universities and colleges, major investors, local governments, states, and tribal nations in declaring they will continue the work of fulfilling the U.S. pledge in the Paris Agreement.
As the new Trump administration plans to make big cuts across the federal government, a coalition of over 200 businesses, investors, and organizations has issued a letter expressing united support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice program. This voluntary program, which labels cleaning products meeting stringent safety and environmental standards, is seen by businesses as a vital tool for communicating product safety to consumers.
A coalition of businesses and organizations representing a broad swath of the economy, including ISSA, the American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN), the Household & Commercial Products Association (HCPA), Change Chemistry, the American Cleaning Institute, the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), and the Alternative Fuels & Chemicals Coalition (AFCC), have come together to express their united support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Safer Choice program.
NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2024 – A group of asset owners today announced that they had sent letters to their top asset managers questioning a marked drop in their support for shareholder proposals calling for increased accountability on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts.
The letters were sent to BlackRock ($BLK), Vanguard ($VTI), State Street ($STT), and T. Rowe Price ($Trow), four of the largest global fund managers, which collectively manage roughly $23.6T in assets representing nearly one-quarter of global capital markets.
The asset owners cite the contradictions created by dramatically declining proxy support for shareholder proposals by the asset managers despite public commitments to sustainability, particularly commitments to mitigate climate risk.
Said Tim Smith, Sr. Policy Advisor at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which coordinates investor engagements with asset managers on their proxy voting records, “Unfortunately, some asset managers have dramatically decreased their voting support for well-written and reasonable resolutions, including Vanguard, which failed to support even one environmental or social proposal during 2024 regardless of the clear financial risks they raised. In response, asset owners who are clients and shareholders of these investment managers have written them challenging this as an abdication of fiduciary duty.”
As an example, BlackRock’s own research indicates that the long-term implications of inaction on climate change could reduce global economic output by nearly 25 percent over the next two decades, making addressing climate change a material issue for fiduciaries. Yet despite this, BlackRock’s recently released 2024 Global Voting Spotlight reports that the firm “supported (only) four out of the 161 shareholder proposals on climate and natural capital that we voted on”. This stands in stark contrast to BlackRock’s 2022 record of supporting 37% of environmental proposals on corporate proxies.
At DexCom, BlackRock opposed a majority-supported 2024 shareholder proposal calling for political spending disclosure in an election year. This divergence with the majority of its fellow shareholders is one example of BlackRock’s misunderstanding of the material risks raised by shareholder proposals.
Said Katie McCloskey, Vice President of Social Responsibility, Mercy Investment Services, “BlackRock’s survey of institutional investors showed that its clients care deeply about proxy voting on sustainability: It emerged as the number one criterion for selecting managers by 20% of 200 institutional investors surveyed. The company needs to rectify its poor sustainability-related proxy voting record with what institutional investors need and want.”
Vanguard states publicly “that climate change, related regulatory changes, and shifts in market dynamics, present material risks (and opportunities) to many companies and their ability to deliver long-term financial returns to their shareholders.” Yet despite this statement, Vanguard’s recently released Investment Stewardship U.S. Regional Brief for 2024 shows that the firm supported none of the 400 environmental and social shareholder proposals examined, including numerous proposals calling for climate risk mitigation.
There is growing evidence that asset owners are becoming increasingly concerned about asset manager’s proxy voting on ESG shareholder proposals and many are taking action. For example, the UK Asset Owner Stewardship Review highlights a growing misalignment between asset owners and asset managers when it comes to exercising stewardship and proxy voting at major oil and gas companies. This misalignment has become more pronounced in recent years on shareholder resolutions (vs management proposals) and at American companies (vs. European ones).
Said Cathy Rowan of Trinity Health, “We believe shareholder engagement, including the filing of proposals, is an important tool to help ensure good corporate governance practices that will result in the positive financial performance of our portfolio companies. As investors and clients, we look to asset managers to strengthen these tools through their proxy voting, and when they don’t, we need to understand why.”
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn, Bsky and X.