Shareholder Advocacy: Compelling Corporate Climate Action

Model and Strategy

A sane climate future requires the willing participation of corporations. As shareholder advocates, As You Sow uses direct access to powerful decision-makers inside companies to compel measurable, tangible climate action.

Fossil Fuels. We are compelling Paris-aligned net-zero GHG targets and climate transition plans from Big Oil and major emitters like Exxon, Chevron, and GE; pushing fossil-fired utilities to end reliance on natural gas and coal; and depriving oil, gas, and coal of easy access to capital by compelling banks to take responsibility for the GHGs they finance.

Land Use. Food companies control vast amounts of land and farming infrastructure. We are setting major food manufacturers—Kellogg’s, Pepsi, KraftHeinz—on a path to regenerative agriculture, beginning with weaning their supply chains off pesticides.

Justice. Our Racial Justice and DEI initiatives push corporations to eradicate systemic racism for a more equitable future. This grant will enable us to add an explicit climate vector focused on climate’s outsize impact on marginalized communities and People of Color.

Impact

In 2020 the banks we engaged made significant commitments, including Morgan Stanley’s and JPMorganChase’s ground-breaking Paris-aligned financing commitments. Ramping up pressure now can end fossil fuel companies’ unlimited access to capital.

We’ve secured net-zero GHG commitments from most coal-fired utilities for electricity. To avoid climate disaster, we must now move utilities to break their addiction to natural gas and set net-zero plans that address all GHG emissions.

To avoid catastrophic warming, Big Oil and all major emitting companies must produce business plans that achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. We are driving the concept among investors that companies not planning for climate transition are risky investments, and are approaching a tipping point where, to retain investment dollars, every business with significant GHGs must have and implement a credible net-zero plan.

General Mills’ move toward regenerative agriculture, highlighted in Battery Powered’s issue brief, is in direct response to our shareholder advocacy. We compelled Kellogg, Campbell’s, and Smucker’s to take similar steps. We believe we can compel transformative action at several more food manufacturing giants, moving regenerative practices firmly into the industrial food landscape.

Exxon scores in our bottom ten on racial justice. Our resolutions are forcing companies to pay explicit attention to climate justice, in how they treat their employees, their customers, and the communities where they operate; in their supply chains; and in their climate impacts.

As You Sow