As You Sow believes that shareholders are a powerful force for creating positive, lasting changes in corporate behavior.
Over the past century, corporate power has become the most dominant force on the planet. Of the 100 largest economic entities in the world, nearly 70% are corporations. This concentration of resources gives companies power and influence over their workers, customers, and the communities in which they operate.
It is critical for corporate leaders to address the impact of their policies and actions. By ignoring this impact, they are creating risk for their customers, employees, shareholders, and themselves. Ultimately, companies that view the world not in months, but in years, decades, and generations will be able to reduce their long-term risk and ensure success. Shareholder actions press corporations to undertake this broader risk analysis and make decisions that benefit people, the planet, and profit over the long term.
Since 1992 As You Sow has utilized shareholder advocacy to increase corporate responsibility on a broad range of environmental and social issues. As shareholder advocates, As You Sow communicates directly with corporate executives to collaboratively develop and implement business models that reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and increase the bottom line while simultaneously bringing positive environmental and social change.
Andrew Behar is CEO of As You Sow, the nation’s leading non-profit practitioner of shareholder advocacy and engagement. With a 30-year track record of success, As You Sow advances values-aligned investing and uses shareholder power to compel companies to reduce material risk on issues including climate change; toxins in the food system; ocean plastics; diversity, equity, and inclusion; racial justice; and wage equity. Previously Andrew was a documentary filmmaker and entrepreneur founding start-ups that developed innovative physiological monitoring devices and grid-scale fuel cells. He is an inventor on five patents and was recently named as one of the Purposeful-50 “true changemakers who deliver on social justice, environmental protection, diversity, inclusion, racial equality, and gender and pay equity.” He is currently on the board of the Responsible Sourcing Network. His book, The Shareholders Action Guide: Unleash Your Hidden Powers to Hold Corporations Accountable, was published by Berrett-Koehler.
What will you learn:
- The Power of Shareholder Advocacy
- Long-Term Risk Management for Companies
- Examples of Shareholder Action in Practice
