Press Release Source: Domini Social Investments On Thursday April 14, 2011, 5:09 pm EDT

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Domini Social Investments announced today that the Domini Social Equity Fund (Nasdaq:DSEFX - News) ranked in the top 10% of its peer group for the 1-year and 3-year periods ended March 31, 2011.

"Our fund shareholders appreciate the fact that we work on their behalf to bring universal human dignity to those who lack it and ecological sustainability to our planet," said Amy Domini, Founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments. "We are proud to contribute to investors' triple bottom line: people, the planet, and profit."

Domini credited the Fund's strong performance during these time periods to its innovative partnership with Wellington Management Company, subadviser to the Fund since November 30, 2006. The Fund’s unique approach, designed to capitalize on each firm’s strengths, has delivered industry-leading financial performance and high social and environmental impact.

Domini is responsible for establishing the Fund’s investable universe through its proprietary social and environmental analysis. Domini utilizes more than 600 key performance indicators to implement its comprehensive Global Investment Standards.

Domini’s research framework is both broad and in-depth, focusing on the key sustainability challenges and opportunities faced by each company, within its industry context. Wellington Management then applies its quantitative modeling techniques to construct a portfolio of Domini-approved stocks. Domini then engages with portfolio holdings through proxy voting and more direct forms of shareholder activism.

The Domini Social Equity Fund was founded in 1991 by Amy Domini, widely recognized as the leading voice for socially responsible investing. Her most recent book has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, a tribute to her pioneering work to bring finance into the business of building a better world for our children.

Written by Michal Connor

A group of investment organizations with about $43 billion in assets under management has sent letters to 35 major companies represented on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, urging company managements “to evaluate their role and to assess the risks and benefits of Board membership.”

The investors cited what they say are the “significant risks posed by misalignment between company and Chamber policy objectives.”  Of particular concern, they said, are the Chamber’s “obstructive positions on climate change legislation, the healthcare and financial reform bills enacted in 2010, and most recently… its partisan political spending reported to be $75 million in the 2010 elections."

The open letter was led by Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management Company.   The investor coalition includes investment firms, mutual funds and religious investors as well as Common Cause and the AFL-CIO.

Adam Kanzer, General Counsel at Domini Social Investments, one of the signatories to the letter, said:

“The Chamber claims that its board members set policy, and yet the Chamber’s policies often directly contradict the policies of the companies serving as board members. We’re asking companies to face these contradictions and address them. If they tell investors that a particular policy objective is important to the business, we think it is fair to ask why the Chamber is working to achieve the opposite outcome. As the Chamber commences an aggressive program challenging new and necessary regulation, being a silent or passive member of the Chamber Board is not responsible governance.”

In the letter to the companies, the investors said:

"We believe that the Chamber bases its advocacy on a general belief that regulation is bad for business while deregulation is good for citizens. CEO Tom Donohue stated that the Chamber will “continually tell the story to the American people about the massive costs of excessive regulations—a tax, if you will—on jobs and on their personal and economic freedom.” As long-term investors, we disagree strongly with this premise. Without a doubt deregulation was a major contributor to the financial crisis as was lax regulation in the disastrous Deepwater Horizon blow out and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the Massey Energy mine blast. The sustainability of our ecological systems, our communities and our financial markets certainly cannot be achieved without effective regulation."

The letter was sent to the following companies: Accenture, Alcoa, Allstate, Anheuser-Busch Companies, A.O. Smith Corp., AT&T, Caterpillar Inc., Charles Schwab Corporation, ConocoPhillips, CVS/Caremark Corporation , Deere & Company, Dow Chemical Co.,  Duke Energy Corp., Eastman Kodak Company, Emerson Electric Co., FedEx Corporation, International Business Machines Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lockheed Martin Corporation, 3M Company, Melaleuca Inc., New York Life Insurance Company, Peabody Energy Corp., PepsiCo Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Ryder System Inc., Southern Company, Spencer Stuart, State Farm Insurance Companies, The Travelers Companies, United Parcel Service, Verizon Communications Inc., WellPoint Inc. and Xerox Corporation.

According to the investor group, a number of major companies have in recent years addressed the Chamber policy “misalignment” by leaving its Board or withdrawing from the Chamber altogether.  “In recent years, Nike withdrew as a Board member and Apple, Exelon and PG & E, among others, resigned as members of the Chamber over its climate change position,” the investors said. “Other companies have stated publicly that the Chamber does not speak for them on critical issues or declared that their dues cannot be used for lobbying or political spending purposes.”

Read the original article here.

ROLE AS U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
BOARD MEMBERS HIGHLIGHTED
 
BOSTON, MA – November 4 – Investors today announced the filing of shareholder resolutions at several corporations that sit on the Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, challenging their corporate boards to review their policies and oversight of political expenditures, especially through trade associations. The first four companies to receive this resolution are Accenture, IBM, Pepsi and Pfizer.
 
Each of these companies has strong corporate governance records and is understandably proud of its leadership in corporate responsibility.  In addition, IBM, Pfizer and Pepsi have strong vendor standards policies holding their suppliers to high standards of conduct through audits and engagement. 
 
“Yet as Board members and major corporate contributors to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce they play a passive and compliant role, remaining silent while the Chamber reportedly poured $75 million into the 2010 election while working to unseat any member of the U.S. Congress who voted in favor of healthcare reform.  The Chamber also works vigorously against legislation and regulation on climate change and financial reform.  Ironically, the Chamber works to undercut the very leadership these companies demonstrate on sustainability,” commented Timothy Smith, Senior Vice President of Walden Asset Management and one of the lead sponsors of the shareholder resolutions.  
 
Adam Kanzer, General Counsel at Domini Social Investments and a filer of the resolution at IBM, stated “The Chamber of Commerce is an aggressively partisan organization that is standing in the way of solutions to our nation’s most pressing problems, from health care to climate change. We are asking why these companies would lend their good names—and their implicit endorsement— to the Chamber’s agenda, which often runs contrary to their own, stated policies and practices. We are simply asking them to do what directors are supposed to do – ask hard questions and exercise meaningful oversight.”
 
The Chamber website describes Board member responsibilities as follows:
 
“Directors determine the U.S. Chamber’s policy positions on business issues and advise the U.S. Chamber on appropriate strategies to pursue.  Through their participation in meetings and activities held across the nation, directors help implement and promote U.S. Chamber policies and objectives.”
 
The resolution sponsors argue that a company serving on the Chamber’s Board can be widely perceived as supporting and promoting its policies and programs, which can have a negative impact on a company with a strong reputation for good governance and corporate responsibility.
 
The resolution is also expected to be filed with several other companies on the Chamber’s Board.  The Board has over 100 members including, AT&T, Caremark, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Dow Chemical, FedEx, JPMorgan Chase & Co., UPS, and Xerox.
 
Stephen Viederman of the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, one of the sponsors of the Pfizer resolution said, “As Chamber Board members these companies need to stand up and be counted; clarifying which side they are on.  If they differ with the political positions of the Chamber, they need to speak out and make their positions clear.”
 
Controversy about the Chamber’s role in thwarting environmental and climate change legislation led Nike to withdraw from the Board; and PG&E, Exelon, Apple and Levi Strauss to withdraw their Chamber memberships in 2009. In addition, several local Chambers of Commerce have withdrawn their national affiliation.
 
To date, the 25 filers of these resolutions include a broad range of investors, including Walden Asset Management, Domini Social Investment, the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, Catholic Health East, Catholic Healthcare West, Green Century Balanced Fund, the Funding Exchange, the Needmor Fund, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Sisters of Notre Dame Toledo Province, Catholic Healthcare East, the Tides Foundation, Boston Common Asset Management, Zevin Asset Management as well as several individual investors. The list of filers is expected to expand before the shareholder resolution date.
 
 
Walden Asset Management has been a leader in integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis into investment decision-making since 1975.  Walden offers separately managed accounts tailored to meet client-specific investment guidelines and works to strengthen corporate ESG performance, transparency and accountability. Walden Asset Management is a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management Company. www.waldenassetmgmt.com
 
Domini Social Investment is a New York City based investment firm specializing exclusively in
socially responsible investing.  Domini manages assets for individual and institutional mutual fund investors seeking to create positive change in society by integrating social and environmental standards into their investment decisions. www.domini.com
 
 
 
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                                      SAMPLE RESOLUTION BELOW
 
                                             REVIEW POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS POLICY – PFIZER
 
Whereas:  Political spending by companies is increasingly controversial, heightened by the recent Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which allows companies to make independent expenditures in favor of or in opposition to, a candidate’s election campaign.
 
Corporate expenditures supporting a contentious 2010 ballot initiative suspending California’s Global Warming Solutions Act added fuel to the controversy, as did Target and Best Buy contributions for a controversial candidate for Governor in Minnesota. 
 
Over the last five years, corporate political spending has become a major investor concern.  Investors asked hundreds of companies to disclose their policies establish board oversight and disclose all direct and indirect expenditures for political purposes.  More than seventy-five S&P 500 companies now disclose their political expenditures and policies on their website.  Shareowner proposals urging such disclosure averaged more than 30 percent of votes in 2010, indicating strong investor support.
 
Many companies are updating their political spending policies. For example, Morgan Stanley stated it will not make direct or indirect independent political expenditures.
 
Left out of many company commitments, however, is transparency around payments to trade associations and other tax-exempt groups for political purposes.
 
Pfizer is on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which announced it will spend $75 million in political campaigns in 2010. The Chamber, allegedly on behalf of the business community, lobbies, speaks publicly and puts political dollars to work which effectively challenge Pfizer’s positions on environmental issues. Pfizer has strong environmental policies and urges companies in its supply chain to follow suit.
Yet as a Chamber board member, Pfizer plays a passive role and does not seek to influence or challenge the Chamber’s environmental positions.
 
Pfizer also has clear policies prohibiting political spending, but does not challenge the Chamber on its partisan political activities. These inconsistencies could be harmful to Pfizer’s reputation.
 
The Chamber’s website states: “Directors determine the U.S. Chamber’s policy positions on business issues and advise the U.S. Chamber on appropriate strategies to pursue.  Through their participation in meetings and activities held across the nation, Directors help implement and promote U.S. Chamber policies and objectives.”  As a Chamber board member Pfizer certainly may be perceived as supporting its policies.
 
Resolved: Shareholders request that the independent Board members institute a comprehensive review of Pfizer’s political spending policies and oversight processes, both direct and indirect, including through trade associations, and present a summary report by September 2011. The report may omit confidential information and limit costs. Items for review include:
 
Review and disclosure of any direct and indirect expenditures supporting or opposing candidates, or for issue ads designed to affect political races, including dues and special payments made to trade associations, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or political and other organizations that can hide any contributions. 
Risks and responsibilities associated with serving on boards of and paying dues to trade organizations when positions of the trade association contradict the company’s own positions.
Management and board oversight processes for all political spending, direct or indirect.