As You Sow is a non-profit foundation chartered to promote

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

(for example on

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

) through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and legal strategies.

History

As You Sow was founded in 1992 and has five program areas for addressing its environmental and social concerns: Energy, Environmental Health, Waste, Power of the Proxy, and Human Rights. Most of As You Sow's Programs include shareholder advocacy to pressure companies to adopt its desired policies. According to As You Sow, "Shareholder advocacy leverages the power of stock ownership in publicly traded companies to promote environmental, social, and governance change from within." Under the Environmental Health Program, As You Sow's Toxic Enforcement Initiative seeks to reduce and remove carcinogenic exposures by pursuing compliance with California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act.

Engagements with corporations

Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 195 ...

announced they would remove

titanium dioxide Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania , is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula . When used as a pigment, it is called titanium white, Pigment White 6 (PW6), or CI 77891. It is a white solid that is insolubl ...

from their powdered donuts after being pressured by As You Sow. The company had been adding the ingredient to make the donuts appear more brightly white, while As You Sow had alleged that the additive was a

nanomaterial * Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science-based approach to nan ...

with unknown health effects that could cause damage to DNA when consumed. The company said they disagreed with the allegations, but would nevertheless remove the ingredient from their recipe. With a coalition of other investment organizations, As You Sow has pressed oil and gas companies to disclose and address the risks of

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

("fracking"). Since 2005, As You Sow has collaborated on Proxy Preview, providing an annual overview of hundreds of shareholder proposals. Through its Energy Program, As You Sow has engaged

supermajor Big Oil is a name used to describe the world's six or seven largest publicly traded and investor-owned oil and gas companies, also known as supermajors. The term, particularly in the United States, emphasizes their economic power and influence ...

oil companies, including

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

, which for the first time issue a report about corporate assets that could be at risk from

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. As You Sow regularly publishes reports on issues relating to corporate social responsibility, including

executive compensation Executive compensation is composed of both the financial compensation (executive pay) and other non-financial benefits received by an executive from their employing firm in return for their service. It is typically a mixture of fixed salary, variab ...

and recyclable packaging in the food and beverage industries. As You Sow grades mutual funds on climate change, deforestation, militarism, mass incarceration, gender equality, tobacco, and guns.

Awards

In 2010, As You Sow received the California Stewardship Bow and Arrow Award for Coalition Building, from the California Product Stewardship Council, for its engagement of the three largest U.S. beverage companies (the

Coca Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups ...

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

, and Nestle Waters North America), leading each to commit to recycling a majority of their post-consumer containers over the following six years.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Organizations established in 1992 Business ethics organizations Environmental organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in the United States 1992 establishments in the United States

History

Engagements with corporations

Awards

See also

References

External links