@Green__CenturyGreen Century Advocacy Achievements
Green Century Capital Management, Inc. (Green Century) is the administrator of the Green Century Funds, the first family of no-load environmentally responsible mutual funds. Founded by a partnership of non-profit environmental advocacy organizations in 1991, Green Century's mission is to provide people who care about a clean, healthy planet the opportunity to use the clout of their investment dollars to encourage environmentally responsible corporate behavior. Green Century believes that shareholder advocacy is a critical component of responsible investing and actively advocates for greater corporate environmental accountability.
Green Century helps foster a sustainable economy by encouraging companies to lessen their environmental impacts. From strategic dialogue with management and top executives, to raising issues with the public and other shareholders through the filing of shareholder resolutions, to responsible proxy voting at the companies in which the Green Century Funds hold shares, Green Century employs numerous strategies to encourage improvements in corporate behavior. We work in coalition with other socially responsible investors, religious leaders and our environmental non-profit partners to actively encourage companies to adopt cleaner and healthier practices and products.
Green Century also publishes cutting edge reports that push companies as well as the financial services sector to be green leaders. Green Century partnered with As You Sow in writing Seeking Safer Packaging, a report which outlined the actions 20 publicly-traded food and beverage companies are taking to respond to concerns regarding BPA. Green Century also took a historic and pioneering step to address carbon emissions when we commissioned a carbon footprint analysis of the Green Century Balanced Fund; in July 2009, the Balanced Fund became the first mutual fund in the country to disclose its carbon intensity.
Because many of the companies that have the most egregious impact on the environment do not pass the Green Century Funds’ environmental screens and thus are not included in either of the Funds’ holdings, Green Century Capital Management maintains its own private investment portfolio for the sole purpose of conducting advocacy at the companies in that portfolio. Thus, the Funds’ investors can be confident that while they are directly investing in clean, green companies, they are also supporting an organization that can actively engage with all companies on environmental issues.
Green Century is proud to share some of our most important advocacy success stories. They are a product of perhaps our greatest achievement: a legacy of positive corporate environmental practices earned through nearly two decades of hard-nosed advocacy campaigns.
Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
For over a decade Green Century has played a vocal role in protecting pristine Arctic wilderness areas from oil drilling interests. A persistent thorn in the side of major oil companies, Green Century filed our first of 10 shareholder resolutions on this issue in 1998. In 2001 our sister organization, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, published the report False Profits: The Business Case Against Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge further debunking the rationale behind investing in an Arctic-focused strategy to increase oil production. From 2002 to 2004, Chevron*, BP*, and ConocoPhillips* withdrew their support from Arctic Power, an industry lobbying group that promoted drilling in the Refuge, leaving ExxonMobil* the lone oil company providing financial support to Arctic Power’s efforts. In 2009, Green Century filed a resolution on this issue at ExxonMobil but withdrew it after the oil giant admitted it had finally pulled out of Arctic Power. To this day, no oil drilling has been allowed in the Refuge.
Phasing out Bisphenol A
Green Century has been a powerful watchdog working to limit corporate use of the toxic chemical bisphenol A (BPA). The chemical is used by food and beverage companies in can linings and some hard clear plastic containers despite studies linking the synthetic sex hormone to developmental problems, heart disease and diabetes. In 2006, after dialogue with Green Century, Whole Foods* made a public commitment to stop selling polycarbonate baby bottles and children's sippy cups that contain BPA. Building on this success, in 2009 Green Century filed a resolution with Whole Foods but withdrew it after the company agreed to take steps to eliminate BPA from other store products. Whole Foods also agreed to work with Green Century on initiatives pressuring can and chemical manufacturers to develop safer BPA substitutes. Whole Foods has since become an industry leader in transparency and action on the BPA issue.
Protecting Small Children from BPA
In 2009, Sunoco*, one of the few companies that produce BPA, informed Green Century that it had instituted a groundbreaking policy requiring its customers to guarantee that the chemical will not be used in food or beverage containers designed for children under three years old. Green Century publicized Sunoco’s policy – the only one of its kind in the chemical industry. The Sunoco policy has since been used by congressional leaders to argue for national legislation on BPA and will help limit exposure to BPA by a vulnerable population.
Nike Withdraws from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board
In response to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s extreme and antagonistic stance on climate change, Green Century sent a letter to Nike* in the fall of 2009 urging the company to adhere to its own message and “Just do it” by terminating its membership in the Chamber. The day after receiving Green Century’s letter, Nike resigned from the Chamber’s Board of Directors, a blow to the Chamber and a public rejection of the Chamber’s backwards position on climate policy. Following this success, Green Century led a coalition of 43 investor organizations representing $16 billion in assets under management in asking over 40 major corporations to end the glaring contradiction between their own policies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s and National Association of Manufacturers’ positions on pending climate legislation.
Overwhelming Support for Political Disclosure
As one of our priority issue areas, Green Century has sought increased transparency and disclosure of corporate political contributions. As trade associations play an increasingly key role in shaping policy, it is more important than ever for companies to be transparent and accountable for their political contributions. Shareholders need to know that corporate funds are not used in a way that may harm the environment or the long-term interests of the company. Green Century has filed nearly 20 resolutions encouraging companies to adopt comprehensive policies to ensure transparency and accountability in their political spending. Green Century achieved our most significant victory when we asked for more extensive political contribution transparency from Amgen*. The company agreed with our request and took the nearly unprecedented step of asking its shareholders to vote in support of the resolution. An overwhelming 75%** of shareholders supported the resolution, the largest positive vote Green Century has ever generated and one of the largest ever achieved for a shareholder resolution.
Exposing the Environmental and Economic Risks of Tar Sands Development
Labeled "the most destructive project on Earth" by Canada’s Environmental Defence, tar sands development has significant environmental impacts. For several years, Green Century has pressured major oil and gas companies to increase their disclosure on the environmental damage that will result from the expansion of their operations in the Alberta tar sands. At Chevron's* 2008 annual meeting, 28.6%** of shareholders representing $31.4 billion of shares*** voted in support of a resolution filed by Green Century requesting increased disclosure on the environmental impacts of company operations in the Alberta tar sands. In 2009, the resolution was filed again and, while the resolution was not included on the company’s proxy statement, Chevron announced in June 2009 that it was putting its only majority-owned project in the oil sands on hold.
Sustainability Reporting
Green Century has asked dozens of companies to report on their sustainability efforts, sending a clear message that information about environmental impacts and practices is critical for investment decision-making. Following the dictum, "what is measured is managed," sustainability reports provide a basis for benchmarking a company's environmental performance and tracking improvements from year to year. In 2009, Green Century filed shareholder resolutions with Darden Restaurants* and Family Dollar Stores* asking those companies to prepare comprehensive and transparent sustainability reports describing corporate strategies to address climate change, specifically including plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both companies committed to produce sustainability reports.
Protecting Ocean Ecosystems
Marine biologists and ocean experts around the world have reached the conclusion that oceans are in peril, threatened by climate change, habitat destruction and overfishing. According to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, 80% of the world’s wild fish are either fully- or over-exploited. In 2009 Green Century filed a resolution with Costco Wholesale* but withdrew it after the company released its first sustainability report that included its strategy and objectives for sourcing seafood in a sustainable way, including giving consideration to the condition of fish stocks and to the protection and respect of the marine ecosystem.
Limiting the Environmental Harm of Coal Combustion
Coal ash is a by-product of burning coal that contains arsenic, mercury, heavy metals and other toxins filtered out of smokestacks by pollution control equipment. The toxins in coal ash have been linked to cancer, organ failure, and other serious health problems. Ash is often stored in enormous quantities in landfills, impoundment ponds or abandoned mines, many of which lack adequate linings that prevent leaching of these components into groundwater. Green Century filed a resolution at FirstEnergy Corp*, a major utility, but withdrew it after the company agreed to publicly commit to a long-term strategy of using only dry storage for its coal ash. The company will stop pumping coal ash into its 1,000-acre treatment pond in Pennsylvania and transition to a dry method of waste storage, which limits potential contamination.
Protecting the Everglades
Green Century filed a resolution asking Lowe’s Companies*, a home improvement store, to improve stakeholder engagement in store siting, particularly regarding a controversial store the company planned to build in the pristine Florida Everglades. Although Lowe's challenged Green Century's resolution and it did not appear on the company’s proxy ballot, Green Century was represented at the meeting by a Florida-based environmental group. Our representative delivered signed petitions and shared community concerns with top management, the board of directors, other shareholders and the media. In May 2009, a Miami-Dade administrative law judge found that the Miami-Dade County Commissioners inappropriately altered an urban development boundary to accommodate the proposed Lowe’s Superstore and that the project should not go forward.
* As of March 31, 2013, the following companies comprised the listed percentages of each of the Green Century Funds:
|
Portfolio Holding |
Green Century Balanced Fund |
Green Century Equity Fund |
|
BP |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
ConocoPhillips |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
ExxonMobil |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
Whole Foods |
1.20% |
0.25% |
|
Sunoco |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
Nike |
0.00% |
0.69% |
|
Amgen |
1.89% |
0.00% |
|
Chevron |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
Darden Restaurants |
0.00% |
0.11% |
|
Family Dollar Stores |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
Costco Wholesale |
2.30% |
0.75% |
|
FirstEnergy Corp. |
0.00% |
0.00% |
|
Lowe’s Companies |
0.00% |
0.00% |
Portfolio composition will change due to ongoing management of the Funds. Please refer to the Green Century Funds website for current information regarding the Funds’ portfolio holdings. These holdings are subject to risk as described in the Funds’ prospectus. References to specific investments should not be construed as a recommendation of the securities by the Funds, their administrator, or their distributor.
** Calculated by (i) dividing the number of votes in support of the proposal by (ii) the sum of the number of votes voted in support of and against the proposal. Abstentions and broker non-votes were not included in the calculation.
*** Calculated using Chevron's closing price per share on March 31, 2008, the record date for Chevron's 2008 annual meeting.
You should consider the Green Century Funds’ investment objective, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds, call 1-800-93-GREEN, visit www.greencentury.com or email info@greencentury.com. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.
The Green Century Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC 2/10