Download our latest Social Impact Updates (pdf).

 

Third Quarter 2009

 

Domini Urges Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Reporting

 

Companies cannot be held accountable without data. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was founded on the idea that consistent, comparable disclosure to investors can help to mitigate risks and reform behavior. For more than ten years, we have promoted the concept that this idea encompasses social and environmental risks as well. Companies, therefore, should be required to publicly disclose more information about their impact on their employees, our communities, and the environment. Today, we may be closer than ever to our goal.

 

During the quarter, Domini worked with the Social Investment Forum on a proposal asking the SEC to require companies to produce an annual sustainability report using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, the world’s leading format for corporate sustainability reporting. The SIF proposal also asks the SEC to clarify that companies are already required to disclose certain long-term social and environmental risks they face. The proposal, submitted in July, is currently endorsed by more than 80 institutional investors.

 

Investors also file shareholder proposals to obtain information on the social and environmental risks faced by corporations. Beginning in 2003, however, the SEC began allowing companies to exclude from their proxy statements proposals that ask companies to conduct a “risk evaluation” of a social or environmental issue. Shareholders may ask how the company is affecting climate change, for example, but may not ask how climate change — or exposure to subprime lending — will affect the company.

 

In September, Domini participated in an invitation-only meeting with SEC staff. We joined other shareholders in opposing this line of decisions, arguing that the SEC has, in effect, been asking us to pretend that we are not investors when we raise these issues.

 

This meeting produced rapid results. In late October, SEC staff issued a new legal bulletin ending this “risk evaluation” approach. We look forward to continuing this dialogue to ensure that our right to file proposals on social and environmental issues continues to be protected and strengthened.

 

In late July and early October, Domini’s Managing Director and General Counsel took part in the first two meetings of the SEC’s new Investor Advisory Committee. The 18-member committee was established to provide the SEC with the views of a broad spectrum of investors on the Commission’s regulatory agenda.

Kimberly-Clark Takes Leadership on Sustainable Forestry

 

For several years, Domini has led a shareholder group urging Kimberly-Clark — a major producer of tissue products — to improve its forestry practices and to engage in dialogue with environmental groups such as Greenpeace.  In June, Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace jointly announced new company policies including sustainable forestry and human rights commitments that are very much in line with our requests. We congratulate Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace on this important achievement.

 

Domini Joins Call for Strong Climate Change Treaty

 

Domini joined a group of 181 investment institutions, representing $13 trillion, in calling for a strong global climate change treaty. The statement is purportedly the largest investor statement on climate change ever issued. The investors warn of “catastrophic economic and social consequences” if serious action is not taken at the December global summit in Copenhagen.

 

The statement was produced by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the Investor Network on Climate Risk, the Investor Group on Climate Change/Australia and New Zealand, and the UNEP Financial Initiative.

 

Human Rights

 

During the quarter, Domini continued its work with the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder initiative opposing censorship and surveillance on the Internet (corporate members are Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo). For the fifth year in a row, Domini filed a shareholder proposal asking Cisco Systems to address its impact on human rights. The proposal will come to a vote in November.

 

Domini Helps Launch Conflict Risk Network

 

Domini is pleased to be a founding member of the Conflict Risk Network (CRN). CRN seeks to leverage the more than $500 billion in combined assets of its institutional investor members to address mass atrocities and avoid genocide in conflict zones around the world through in-depth research on corporate activity in these regions and direct engagement with companies. CRN is a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, which began addressing the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region in 2006. As a founding member, Domini has a seat on CRN’s advisory board.

 

*The press release and full proposal are available at http://www.socialinvest.org/news/releases/pressrelease.cfm?id=143 and  www.socialinvest.org/documents/ESG_Letter_to_SEC.pdf.

 

Domini’s General Counsel is a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee. This document represents Domini’s views and does not necessarily reflect either the views of the committee, or the views or regulatory agenda of the Commission, the Commissioners, or Commission staff.