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CSRwire Weekly News Alert
8.19.2008 - 11:59pm ET
The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - Investor Advocates Upping Effectiveness by Creating Issue-Specific Networks
Networks serve as pivot points for leveraging corporate change
Leverage: the term is so over-used in business, it's lost the umph of its
original metaphor - think of a see–saw where a little kid can lift a big
adult by placing the fulcrum, or pivot point, in just the right spot and
exerting some pressure. This image applies aptly to investor advocacy,
where shareholders leverage corporate change by acting as a pivot point,
connected to companies on one end and activists on the other end. And
investor advocates are upping their effectiveness by creating
issue-specific networks such as those catalogued in a new
category added to our CSR Directory by its
manager, Michael Kane.
Take, for example, the investor
advocacy network launched just this week to promote an end to forced
child labor in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan. The move comes in
response to media
accounts and reports that
the world’s third largest cotton exporter relies heavily on harvesting
by kids as young as 10. A group of socially responsible investors (SRIs)
and activist NGOs banded together to push the Uzbek government to enforce
International Labor Organization child labor conventions – a
move supported by four retail trade organizations. "It is our
experience that collaborative efforts of investors, non-governmental
organizations, trade unions, companies and industry associations can make
a difference," said David Schilling of the Interfaith
Center on Corporate Responsibility.
ICCR practically invented shareholder advocacy, and actively collaborates
with a number of issue-based investor advocacy networks - most notably Ceres,
the mother of environmental investor networks, on climate risk. When the
Investor
Environmental Health Network launched a few years ago (with several
ICCR members), IEHN readily acknowledged borrowing from the Ceres playbook
on climate risk to address toxic products and manufacturing processes.
Now, the Open
MIC (Media and Information Companies) Initiative is applying Ceres and
IEHN tactics to address digital-age issues such as network neutrality and
safeguarding computer users' privacy and free speech.
The investor advocacy network model is also expanding to encompass
everyday investors with initiatives such as FundVotes, ProxyDemocracy, and
OpenSRI. Former Corporate Library researcher Jackie Cook founded FundVotes
to sift the mountain of SEC data and list how mutual funds vote on
shareholder resolutions. Armed with this info, investors can confront
funds for rubber-stamping management. ProxyDemocracy,
spearheaded by Harvard PhD candidate Andy Eggers, takes this a step further
by compiling the progressive proxy voting policies of CalPERS, Calvert,
Domini, and others to serve as a template for investors to vote their own
proxies. Corporate
governance expert Jim McRitchie praised the idea: "It marks the
beginning of a new era of potential activism by retail shareowners who can
now begin to vote their proxies by brand reputation." OpenSRI
democratizes corporate social and environmental performance ratings, which
SRI firms typically guard as proprietary info, by inviting input from all
stakeholders.
Even federal offices, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, have a
role to play. EPA
recently networked with investors to dialogue on improving access to
environmental data. The conclusion: tag info by parent company, a
move EPA is working to implement - or enforce on databases such as the
Toxics Release Inventory that already requires it.
This article was written by CSRwire contributor Bill Baue. Disclosure:
Bill Baue has worked with Ceres, IEHN, and Jackie Cook.
Book Promotion
This week's book promotion is 'The Common
Good Corporation' a comprehensive guide to creating a healthy
values-driven workplace community at any organization co-authored by Bob
and Barbara Fishman. Bob highlights his own personal experiences
successfully managing the national $166 million dollar organization
Resources for Human Development (RHD). During its 38-year history, it has
grown an average of 27 percent yearly. The book is full of innovative,
values-led guidelines and principles for developing workplace communities,
supporting local decision making, and instituting unique monetary
policies.
CSRwire's Multimedia Picks of the Week
Ten-year-old Nikos Spiridakis made this powerful one-minute global warming
video after sitting at the gas pump. His film is currently one of the
sample videos for the 1Sky and Brighter Planet national video contest:
Climate Matters--Inspire Your Next President!
In this graphic video, Greenpeace activists attempt to
temporarily stop the flow of toxic waste water into a 2km wide
tailings lake used by Syncrude's Tar Sands operation in Northern Alberta.
Their banner reads: "World's Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands"
Corporate Watchdog Radio did a fascinating interview with Peter
Zeihan, director of analysis for Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor,) a
geopolitical intelligence firm, on the Russia/Georgia conflict and what it
means to the world.
It's hard
to get enough of Van Jones. TPM caught up with the Green Collar Jobs
Founder at the Netroots Nation convention in Austin.
To read the latest corporate social responsibility news from leading
socially responsible organizations, visit http://www.csrwire.com/LastAlert.html.
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