by Claude Solnik
Published: October 3, 2011

It looks like a few firms have agreed to open the books on their political donations, a year after the Supreme Court unceremoniously closed the door on once strict limits to contributions.

A trio of Fortune 500 companies whose stock is held by the New York State Common Retirement Fund have agreed to disclose their political campaign contributions and procedures, after requests from New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

DiNapoli said Marriott International, Yum Brands (parent of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell) and Limited Brands(parent of Henri Bendel and Victoria’s Secret), whose stock is held by the state’s $146.9 billion retirement fund, agreed to disclose contributions to political campaigns and advocacy groups and outline their approval process for political contributions.

The comptroller and the Center for Political Accountability began a push last year for greater disclosure after the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opened the doors to big corporate contributions.

“There’s cause for concern when corporations make it their business to finance campaigns,” DiNapoli said. “Now we’re asking corporations to do the responsible thing for their shareholders and for the public. These three companies have heeded the call.”

After finding that about 70 of the S&P 500 companies had public policies regarding disclosing political donations, the comptroller and the center sent out letters requesting information from the remaining firms.

“We engaged with these companies. Some came forward and said we’ll work with you,” said Eric Sumberg, a spokesman for the comptroller. “We proposed shareholder resolutions at some.”

The retirement fund filed nine shareholder resolutions, leading to agreements with these three firms during the proxy season.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund as of Sept. 16 owned nearly $150 million combined in these firms’ shares including 1.6 million shares of Yum Brands worth $86.2 million; 873,292 shares of Limited Brands worth $35.2 million and 938,109 shares of Marriott International worth $27.4 million.

DiNapoli said he’s continuing to push for disclosure of corporate contributions as a way of monitoring spending of firms whose shares are held by the state an their interaction with the political process.

“Proxy season is in the spring,” Sumberg said. “Over the next couple of months, we’ll look at which companies to engage with the next season. Hopefully, we’ll have more successful engagements.”

ORRVILLE, Ohio - The J.M. Smucker Co. perked up coffee-lovers by announcing that after four straight price hikes in little over a year, the company was cutting prices by an average of 6 percent.

The Orrville food company, which is holding its annual shareholders meeting today, said Tuesday's news applies to the prices on a majority of its coffee products sold in the U.S., including top-selling Folgers Coffee, Folgers Gourmet Selections and Dunkin' Donuts packaged coffee sold in supermarkets.

Smucker cut prices in response to declines in the price of raw green coffee futures, which slipped to $2.10 per pound in July, down 9 percent from a 34-year-high of $2.31 per pound in April.

That's still 65 percent higher than the $1.27-per-pound price in April 2010, but represents the third-straight monthly decline after more than a year of steadily climbing prices, according to the International Coffee Organization.

Those rising prices, on top of higher fuel and other production costs, prompted Smucker to increase its own coffee prices four times:

• 4 percent on May 18, 2010;

• 9 percent on Aug. 3, 2010;

• 10 percent on Feb. 8, 2011;

• and 11 percent on May 24.

Smucker's rivals, including Starbucks, Maxwell House, Peet's Coffee & Tea and Green Mountain Coffee have raised their coffee prices over the past year, too, but have not yet responded to Tuesday's announcement.

Dominic Caruso, vice president of Caruso's Coffee Inc., a specialty coffee roaster in Brecksville, said that while prices for some kinds of raw beans have fallen, they remain significantly higher than they were a year ago.

He said that while mass-produced coffee blends like Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts can compensate for more expensive beans by increasing the amount of cheaper robusta beans, coffee houses that specialize in premium beans or single-source coffees have less wiggle room to lower prices.

"On certain coffees, like breakfast blends and doughnut shop blends, we're going to try to pass along that savings to the customer," he said. "But on other coffees, like African coffees or Indonesian Sumatras and Javas, we're stuck" with higher prices.

Caruso doesn't expect many coffee house regulars to switch to brewing at home, however, because coffee is still an affordable indulgence. "The customer who's going to the coffee shop is going there for a lot of reasons besides price," he said.

The price cut news also came a day before Smucker's annual shareholders meeting, where two shareholder groups that advise investors on responsible and sustainable companies are seeking more information about the company's long-term coffee strategy.

Calvert Investment Management Inc. of Bethesda, Md., and Trillium Asset Management LLC of Boston want shareholders to approve their Proposal 5, requiring Smucker to provide a report to shareholders about how the company plans to deal with possible climate changes and threats to family coffee farms within six months of the annual meeting.

Because coffee makes up 40 percent of Smucker's net sales and 48.6 percent of its profit, the groups wrote a letter to shareholders saying that they want to know how the company plans to respond to climate changes like global warming, changes in rainfall patterns, and its "responsibility for its impact on the coffee farming families in its supply chain."

Rebecca Henson, Calvert's sustainability analyst, said: "The proposal is meant to encourage the company to take more meaningful steps" to protect shareholders, because so much of its business depends on coffee. "We just think there's more they can do to manage this risk."

Calvert, a mutual fund which offers advice to more than 400,000 individual and institutional investors, owns 4,269 shares of Smucker stock.

Trillium, the oldest and largest independent adviser devoted exclusively to sustainable and responsible investing, advises several hundred clients who own about 90,000 shares of Smucker.

Both groups say Smucker has provided "woefully inadequate" guidance on these topics and that it "lags significantly behind" its global peers Nestle, Sara Lee and Kraft in providing that information.

Sara Lee, for example, aims to have 20 percent of its coffee volume certified sustainable by 2015, while Nescafe will distribute 220 million disease-resistant coffee plantlets to coffee farmers around the world by 2020.

Smucker declined to answer questions Tuesday about the price cut or Proposal 5, saying that it was in its quiet period prior to Thursday's earnings conference call.

In an Aug. 9 letter to shareholders, however, Co-Chief Executives Tim and Richard Smucker responded that the company had already answered those requests.

They said that "in making the decision and expending time and resources to voluntarily publish a corporate responsibility report, it has taken appropriate action to address shareholder concerns" and that adopting Proposal 5 would be "unnecessary, duplicative and inappropriate."

Read the original article here.

PR Newswire

BOSTON and BETHESDA, Md., May 25, 2011

BOSTON and BETHESDA, Md., May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nearly two dozen investors and investment organizations, representing over $200 billion in assets under management, sent letters to 43 major companies on the Board of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) urging them to explain the misalignment between their own company's climate policies and NAM's position seeking to strip EPA of its ability to curtail greenhouse gases.

Many companies that are NAM Board members have set laudable goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and overall environmental impact.  Yet through NAM these same companies simultaneously lobby and support measures to weaken, delay or overturn Environmental Protection Agency regulations to lower greenhouse gas emissions, according to the joint letter from 23 investors and investment organizations.

In alphabetical order, the full list of companies is as follows:   3M Company, Abbott Laboratories, AT&T, AEP, Air Products & Chemicals, Alcoa, Bayer, Boeing, Clorox, ConAgra Foods, Conoco Phillips, C.R. Bard, CSX Corporation, Deloitte LLP, Devon Energy, Dow Chemical Company, Ecolab, Eli Lilly & Co., Ernst & Young, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Company, General Motors Company, Grant Thornton, H.J. Heinz, Illinois Tool Works, Inc., Ingersoll Rand, Intel, Johnson Controls, KPMG LLP, Merck & Company, Inc., Nucor, Pfizer, Inc., PPG Industries, Praxair, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Procter & Gamble Company, Ryder Systems, Shell Oil Company, Sherwin-Williams, Southern Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Verizon Communications.

Stu Dalheim, director shareholder advocacy, Calvert Investment Management, Inc. who coordinated the open letter with Walden Asset Management, said: "Any company supporting NAM's recent letter to Congress seeking to block EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases harms their public image and reputation as well as forward progress on environmental issues."  

In the letter, investors point out that, "Contrary to the claims made in NAM's short-sighted letter, EPA regulations will result not only in cleaner air and decreased GHG emissions, but also cost savings for business.  This will bring more jobs and economic growth, which we as shareholders strongly support."

Timothy Smith, senior vice president, Walden Asset Management, said:  "Companies serving on the Board need to evaluate how their internal corporate policies on climate change contradict the policies they support through NAM. Serving on the Board of a trade association comes with the responsibility to govern responsibly and hold the association accountable for lobbying that results in environmental harm."

The letter argues the case that NAM and its member companies should support EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions for three reasons: 1) the EPA rules are not overly costly as NAM claims, 2) EPA rules will enhance manufacturers' competitiveness by encouraging energy efficiency and cost savings, and 3) a growing number of investors are supporting EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions.

The challenge to companies serving on the NAM Board parallels challenges by investors with companies sitting on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board.

About Calvert Investments, Inc.:

An investment management company serving institutional investors, workplace retirement plans, financial intermediaries and their clients, Calvert Investments offers more than 40 equity, bond, cash, and asset allocation strategies, of which many feature integrated environmental, social, and governance research. Founded in 1976 and based in Bethesda, Maryland, Calvert Investments manages over $14.5 billion in assets.

About Walden Asset Management:

Walden has been a leader in integrating environmental, social and governance analysis into investment decision-making since 1975.  A division of Boston Trust & Investment Management Company with $2 billion in assets under management, Walden blends a disciplined investment style and expertise in portfolio screening with a commitment to use shareholder leverage to improve corporate environmental, social and governance performance and accountability.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/319612#ixzz1NOh9MpIP

Measure Calling for Urban Outfitters to Embrace Diversity in Board Leadership Receives 23 Percent of Shareowner Support

BETHESDA, MD///May 20, 2011///Calvert Investment Management, Inc., the Treasurer of the State of Connecticut (as trustee for the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds) and 2020 Women on Boards reported that 23 percent of Urban Outfitters shareholders voted in favor of Proposal #4, which was filed by investors to encourage the company to update its diversity practices and open up its boardroom to women and minorities.

Unlike its five leading category competitors (by market value) – The Gap, Inc. (GPS), Limited Brands, Inc. (LTD), Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN), Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST), and Abercrombie & Fitch Company (ANF) – all of which have at least one woman and/or minority group member on their boards of directors, Urban Outfitters, Inc. has no diversity in its boardroom and actually opposed a shareholder resolution that allowed owners of the company to affirm that diversity is valued at URBN.

Aditi Mohapatra, senior sustainability analyst, Calvert Investment Management, Inc., said:  “This positive vote speaks directly to the outdated board diversity practices at Urban Outfitters. The 23 percent support for the board diversity proposal should go a long way toward ensuring Urban Outfitters is on the right path to a well-functioning, diverse board.  It remains to be seen if the company will respond positively, though this vote sends the message that investors will not stand for policies that limit the company’s ability to respond to shifting demographics and consumer demands.” 

Malli Gero, executive director and co-founder, 2020 Women on Boards, said:  "The vote by Urban Outfitter’s shareholders to support Resolution 4 shows that stakeholders pay attention to board composition. Shareholders are growing weary of companies that refuse to change position on social issues that matter to them. I hope that the leadership at Urban Outfitters heeds their call and nominates a woman to the board."

For the full text of the Urban Outfitters diversity resolution, go online to page 16 of the company's proxy at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/912615/000119312511085795/ddef14a.htm.

The Calvert news release announcing Measure #4 is available online at http://www.calvert.com/newsArticle.html?article=17924

by Robert Kropp

April 14, 2011

 Led by Calvert and Trillium Asset Management, the investor coalition joins local activists to warn of potential ecosystem degradation if permits for proposed mine are approved.

SocialFunds.com -- The Bristol Bay region in southwest Alaska is home to the richest commercial wild salmon fishery in the world. According to Our Bristol Bay, "everything - communities, jobs, and the health of the entire ecosystem from grizzlies on down the food chain," depends upon the continued health of the wild salmon population there.

Given the pristine nature of the extensive wilderness around Bristol Bay, and the dependence of the economy on the commercial fishing activities there, local organizations have risen up in protest over a pebble mine planned for the area by the UK-based Anglo American and Northern Dynasty, a Canadian mining company. The consortium, the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), plans to apply for federal and state permits in spring of 2011, according to Save Bristol Bay, one of the local organizations.

Now, a coalition of investors, led by Calvert Investments and Trillium Asset Management and representing over $170 billion in assets under management, have urged the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "to initiate a review process under the Clean Water Act to evaluate the mine waste impacts of the proposed Pebble Mine," according to a press release.

"This proposed mine has potentially devastating consequences for the people and the ecosystem of Bristol Bay," stated Jonas Kron, vice president at Trillium, thereby necessitating an EPA review.

A report on the environmental performance of Anglo American, the world's second-largest mining company, raises further concern, stating, "Whether it is the poor safety record of its platinum and formerly owned gold mines, the failure to control acid mine drainage in Zimbabwe, the repeated spills of mine waste into communities in Ghana and South Africa, the mercury air pollution in the US, degraded rivers in Ireland, or the unfair treatment of subsistence villagers displaced from their land in places such as South Africa, Anglo American can hardly be considered a model of good corporate citizenship."

"Ecosystem degradation is of serious concern to investors," Stu Dalheim, director of shareholder advocacy at Calvert, stated. "A recent United Nations report showed environmental costs from global human activity equate to an estimated US$ 6.6 trillion – approximately 11% of global GDP in 2008."

By 2050, the report continued, "global environmental costs are projected to reach $28.6 trillion, equivalent to 18% of GDP," in a business-as-usual scenario.