Download our latest
Social Impact Updates (PDF format).
Fourth Quarter 2007
New Resolutions As socially responsible investors, the Domini Funds and their
shareholders work with companies to help build a better world: putting new
issues on the table, engaging in dialogue, and filing shareholder resolutions.
Domini has filed 19 shareholder resolutions for the 2008 proxy season, and was
the lead filer for 11.
Political
Contributions: Through lobbying and political contributions, large
corporations exert a disproportionate — and often barely visible — influence in
the U.S. political system. Domini believes that shareholders have a right to
know about the political activities of the companies they own. Following recent
successes with Verizon and Hewlett-Packard, Domini filed resolutions calling on
American Express and AT&T to disclose their political contributions. We are
also asking companies to disclose contributions to trade associations — an
increasingly important avenue for political influence.
Climate Crisis:
Deforestation is a key contributor to global warming, because healthy forests
absorb vast quantities of carbon that would otherwise enter our atmosphere.
Domini has encouraged large purchasers of paper, pulp, and other wood products
to address this issue. Following successes with Kimberly-Clark and Limited
Brands last year, we filed resolutions urging MeadWestvaco, International
Paper, and the printer RR Donnelley & Sons to practice sustainable paper
purchasing, and Home Depot to report on its sustainable wood policy. Domini
recently joined the Boreal Leadership Council, an organization committed to
protecting one of the world’s largest forest ecosystems.
Workers’ Rights:
Slaves toil at an estimated thousand camps in the Brazilian Amazon to make
charcoal for the production of pig iron, which is used to make steel. Last
year, Bloomberg Markets magazine reported in a cover story that Nucor, the
second-largest U.S. steel company, has purchased some of this pig iron. After
Nucor failed to provide a satisfactory response to our April 2007 letter, we
filed a resolution asking the company to report on how it will ensure that its
supply chain is free of slave labor. We are also opening dialogue with
Whirlpool on this issue. Domini also filed resolutions asking Xerox to report
on labor conditions throughout its supply chain, and urging Cummins to adhere
to international standards in its relationships with labor unions.
Product Safety:
We filed resolutions asking Colgate-Palmolive and Avon Products to report on
their policies for assessing the safety of nanomaterials in cosmetics and
personal products, and disclose which product categories contain them.
Nanomaterials are molecular-sized materials that may easily enter the
bloodstream when inhaled or swallowed, and possibly when applied to the skin.
2007 Highlights
As a shareholder in the Domini
Funds, you make a difference in the world. Listed below are some of the ways
that you made a difference in 2007.
Climate Change: Domini and other investors, representing $4 trillion
in assets, called on Congress to pass strong federal legislation to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The call to action, organized by the environmental
network CERES, was signed by 65 organizations including social investment
firms, state treasurers and pension funds, foundations, labor unions, and
corporations.
Rights for Shareholders: Domini took an active role in opposing
ideas advanced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that could have
restricted or eliminated the right of shareholders to file nonbinding resolutions.
Our two Action Alerts on the subject generated more than 2,000 responses.
Domini also submitted three comment letters, including one submitted on behalf
of 47 institutional investors and service providers from ten countries — all
signatories of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment —
representing approximately $1.4 trillion under management. Ultimately, the SEC
decided — at least for now — to continue allowing shareholders to place
important social, environmental, and governance issues onto corporate proxy
ballots.
First Shareholder Resolution in Europe: Together with trade unions
and employees of the British transportation company FirstGroup, Domini co-filed
its first shareholder resolution in Europe. The resolution addressed allegations
of anti-union activity at First-Group’s U.S. school bus subsidiary, First
Student. Domini’s participation was critical in allowing the unions to meet the
onerous British filing requirements.
Rights for Coffee Farmers: Despite its generally positive social
and environmental record, Starbucks refused for more than a year to acknowledge
the Ethiopian government’s ownership of the valuable naming rights for its
prime coffee-growing regions: Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Harar. Domini engaged
with Starbucks on this issue, beginning in August 2006, and helped enable
representatives of Oxfam and Ethiopian coffee farmers to ask questions at
Starbucks’ annual meeting. We were pleased that Starbucks agreed to sign a
licensing agreement acknowledging Ethiopia’s right to the names. According to
Oxfam, this agreement will improve the lives of poor farmers by helping them
capture a greater part of the retail price of the coffee they grow.
Current Corporate Engagement (Updated as of 6/12/2007)
Our shareholder advocacy work often proceeds in coalition
with other investors and organizations who share our concerns, including public
pension funds, foundations, unions, religious investors affiliated with the Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility, nongovernmental organizations, and other social investment
firms. These coalitions are often powerfully effective in convincing corporate
management to make positive changes.
In the table below, where shareholder resolutions are
mentioned, Domini was the lead filer except when the name of the lead filer is
listed in parentheses.
Skip to: Human Rights | Environment
| Political Contributions Disclosure | Diversity
| Sustainability Reporting
Human Rights
Company
|
Issue
|
Status
|
|
Apple
|
Global labor standards
|
Dialogue
|
|
AT&T
|
Phone surveillance
|
Letter sent
|
|
Citigroup
|
Lending to low-med income borrowers
|
Letter sent
|
|
Coca-Cola (Christian Brothers Investment Services)
|
Human rights policies
|
Dialogue
|
|
Cooper Industries (New York City)
|
Human rights policies
|
12.38%
|
|
FirstGroup plc (UK)(Service Employees International
Union/Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters)
|
Global labor standards
|
Resolution pending
|
|
Honda (Japan)
|
Slave labor
|
Letter sent
|
|
McDonald’s and Walt Disney
|
Global labor standards project
|
Dialogue
|
|
Microsoft, Google, Vodafone (UK), Yahoo*
|
Freedom of expression and privacy
|
Multi-stakeholder dialogue
|
|
Nucor
|
Slave labor and deforestation
|
Letter sent
|
|
Procter & Gamble
|
Fair Trade coffee
|
Dialogue
|
|
Starbucks
|
Ethiopian intellectual property rights
|
Dialogue
|
|
Whirlpool
|
Slave labor and deforestation
|
Letter sent
|
|
Xerox
|
Global labor standards
|
9.1% (preliminary vote count)
|
*As of March 31, 2007, Yahoo was not held in any of
the Domini Funds’ portfolios.
Environment
Company
|
Issue
|
Status
|
|
Anadarko (Trillium Asset Management)
|
Climate change report
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
|
Apache Energy (Boston Common Asset Management)
|
Climate change
|
Dialogue
|
|
Coca-Cola
|
Recycling (Walden Asset Management) and water issues in
India
|
Resolution withdrawn (recycling)
|
|
CVS
|
Climate change report
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
|
Dell Computer
|
Environmental performance
|
Dialogue
|
|
Devon Energy
|
Climate change report
|
Dialogue
|
|
EOG Resources
|
Climate change report
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
|
HSBC Holdings (UK)
|
Sustainable forestry
|
Letter sent
|
|
Kimberly-Clark
|
8.1%; Dialogue
|
|
Limited Brands
|
Dialogue
|
|
Lowe’s
|
Resolution pending
|
|
Procter & Gamble
|
Resolution pending
|
|
Target (As You Sow)
|
Use of PVCs
|
Dialogue
|
|
Wells Fargo (Service Employees International Union)
|
Climate change report
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
Political Contributions Disclosure
Company
|
Issue
|
Status
|
|
AT&T
|
Disclosure of contributions
|
Vote results pending
|
|
BellSouth
|
Acquired by AT&T
|
|
Hewlett-Packard
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
|
Merck
|
Dialogue
|
|
Verizon
|
Resolution withdrawn
|
Diversity
Company
|
Issue
|
Status
|
|
Home Depot
|
Diversity Reporting
|
26%
|
Sustainability Reporting
Company
|
Issue
|
Status
|
|
Gap Inc.
|
Sustainability reporting
|
Dialogue
|
|
Wendy’s
|
Vote results pending
|
