5.15.2007 - 11:59pm ET

(CSRwire) SPRINGFIELD, MA - May 15, 2007 – Springfield, MA-based Social(k), the nation’s most diverse socially responsible retirement plan, today is day-lighting the names of 29 major companies each with more than two billion dollars of retirement assets in Boston-based Fidelity Investments. The assets of the 29 companies, which include Verizon Communications, Ford Motor Company and Eastman Kodak, total $228,303,397,058 (complete list below). Social(k) fund President Rob Thomas made the announcement due to concerns the financial titan invests in companies doing business with the genocidal regime of Sudan. Fidelity Out of Sudan will be writing these companies to request they divest their retirement assets of Fidelity Investments so long as the company retains major investments in Sudan.

Thomas and Fidelity Out of Sudan urge the companies to divest their retirement assets due to Fidelity Investment’s large holdings of PetroChina and Sinopec, two Chinese oil companies helping fund the genocide in Darfur. According to various sources, approximately 70 percent of the oil revenue is used by the government of Sudan to fund the military which is implicated in the death of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people.

The divestment campaign builds on the approach used to end apartheid in South Africa but limits the focus to a small number of companies that are funding the genocide. To date, the debate has focused primarily on personal investments but the substantial retirement assets should also be divested, Thomas noted.

"The basic tenet of the Social(k) retirement platform is to do well by doing good," said Rob Thomas, president of Social(k). "Companies should divest their retirement assets from investment institutions involved in immoral practices and put those assets in funds that enable investors to profit while maintaining high principles."

Thirteen states and 42 colleges and universities (including Harvard, Yale, and the University of California) have already taken action on divestment from Sudan, according to Fidelity Out of Sudan (http://fidelityoutofsudan.com/whohasdivestedfromsudan).

Companies and organizations that have already signed with Social(k) include three of the social responsibility leaders helping pressure Fidelity investors to divest: Co-op America (Washington, DC), Social Investment Forum (Washington, DC ), and the Social Venture Network (San Francisco, CA) as well as two of the nation’s top socially responsible investment fund families (Parnassus Investments (San Francisco, CA) and the Winslow Management Company in (Boston, MA).

Note to reporters: Many of the companies listed below as having two billion dollars or more of their retirement assets with Fidelity Investments are changing the way they operate: offering annual sustainability reports, hiring Corporate Social Responsibility officers, and conducting business in a more sustainable, responsible and efficient manner. (Source: Department of Labor, Form 5500, May 14, 2007)

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