During the past year, under a cloud of scandal, corporate America has faced intense scrutiny for egregious and unethical practices. As a result shareholders and investors have demanded greater involvement in the social and corporate governance issues of companies. The following are parts of an article written by Andrew Countryman, staff writer for the Chicago Tribune.
“Shareholder activism on all fronts is mushrooming in this post-Enron era, with a marked jump in the number of shareholder resolutions filed this year on a variety of subjects, from HIV in Africa and global warming to separating chairman and chief executive positions and expensing stock options. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors, including Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish groups is one such organization that has been engaging in behind-the-scenes discussions with countless companies” to encourage social responsibility and stewardship in governance practices and policies. “Many faith-based investors also support socially conscious mutual funds like those of the Mennonite Mutual Aid in Goshen, Indiana whose mutual funds and shareholder advocacy efforts promotes, in part, the pacifist tradition of the Mennonite community. Once faith-based organizations invest, their strong social justice traditions have led many to engage companies over the years on such issues as investment in South Africa, global labor and human rights standards, pay disparity and living-wage proposals, drug affordability and diversity issues.”
Reflected in Countryman’s article are some examples of shareholder resolutions filed with companies by faith-based investment groups:
COMPANY: General Electric
TOPIC: Costs of PCB contamination
SPONSOR:
Sisters
of St. Joseph of La Grange, Ill.
COMPANY: J.P. Morgan Chase
TOPIC: Report on pay disparity
SPONSOR:
Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque,
Iowa
COMPANY: PepsiCo
TOPIC: Report on AIDS impact
SPONSOR:
Mennonite Mutual Aid
COMPANY: PG&E
TOPIC: Report on greenhouse gas emissions
SPONSOR:
General Board of Pensions and Health
Benefits of the United
Methodist Church
COMPANY: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings
TOPIC: Program to warn of environmental smoke risks
SPONSOR:
Catholic Health Initiatives
To learn more about faith-based investment options go to: www. iccr.org . (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility)
For socially responsible Mutual Funds Investments, go to:
www.calvertgroup.com
or
www.paxfunds.com
