Author: Steve Herro

Passionate about connecting religious faith to social justice, happy to apply my training in history, theology, library and information studies, writing, and organizational development on behalf of the common good.
ICCR statement in support of in-person annual stockholder meetings

ICCR statement in support of in-person annual stockholder meetings

Steve Herro

ICCR believes the ability to attend annual stockholder meetings in person is a fundamental tenet of shareholder democracy. The annual meeting provides shareholders with a critical accountability mechanism to assess, challenge and evaluate management performance through an open exchange
with board and management.

Nevertheless, there is a growing trend among several high profile corporations – including ConocoPhillips, Comcast, Duke Energy, Ford Motor Company, HP, Intel and Biogen – that would eliminate in-person stockholder meetings in favor of virtual-only (webcast) meetings.

Read the full text of ICCR’s statement in support of in-person shareholder meetings.

Speaker encourages Catholics to become responsible clothing consumers

Speaker encourages Catholics to become responsible clothing consumers

Steve Herro

DE PERE — When you compare prices today to 30 years ago, one of the few products that is now actually cheaper is clothing.

“When you think about a car, adjusted for inflation, a car costs you more today,” explained Christopher Cox, campaign manager for The Human Thread, Catholics for Clothing with a Conscience. “If you pull out a circular from 1985, a pair of jeans will cost you less in dollars than it did back in 1985. Why is that? Have the costs for the energy to run the mills gone down? No. Has the cost for the cotton or synthetic gone down? No. The only thing that has gone down is the labor.”

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Investor groups representing $65 trillion tell Trump Administration that current shareholder resolution process is working well to protect investors

Investor groups representing $65 trillion tell Trump Administration that current shareholder resolution process is working well to protect investors

Steve Herro

Demonstrating strong investor opposition to special interest efforts to weaken key elements of the shareholder resolution process (SEC rule 14a-8), a group of leading investor organizations representing $65 trillion in assets wrote last week to the Trump administration urging support for the SEC’s existing shareholder proposal process, which is providing wide-ranging benefits.

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Cox to address SGI members in De Pere on April 5

Cox to address SGI members in De Pere on April 5

Steve Herro

Christopher Cox, Campaign Manager of The Human Thread Campaign, will address representatives of SGI members at 1:30 pm, Wednesday, April 5, Killeen Room, St. Norbert Abbey, 1016 N. Broadway, De Pere.  He will address how consumer choice and socially responsible investing enhance human rights of workers in the clothing factories in the developing world.  For more information, contact Br. Steve Herro, O. Praem., 920-337-4353.  Reservations appreciation.

Forest Trends report documents corporate involvement in reforming supply change practices

Forest Trends report documents corporate involvement in reforming supply change practices

Steve Herro

Seventh Generation Interfaith members engage companies  to promote responsible sourcing and eliminate deforestation impacts of their supply chain.  Forest Trends, an international NGO whose mission is to conserve forests and other ecosystems through the creation and wide adoption of a broad range of environmental finance, markets, and other payment and incentive mechanisms, has released “Supply Change:
Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-Free Supply Chains, 2017.”  The report tracks companies, their commitments, and their progress towards these commitments over time to support stakeholders’ decision-making and, ultimately, to drive transformational change.  A press release and the report are available on the Web.

Investors with $3 Trillion in Assets Call for CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio Disclosure

Investors with $3 Trillion in Assets Call for CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratio Disclosure

Steve Herro

Seventh Generation Interfaith members Congregation of St. Agnes, Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Dana Investment Advisers,  Province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order, Racine Dominican Sisters, Priests of the Sacred Heart (U.S. Province), School Sisters of St. Francis,  and Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, joined over 100 institutional investors in a letter to the SEC in support of maintaining existing CEO-to-worker pay ratio disclosure requirements.

SGI lobbies Sen. Robert Portman to support a business supply transparency bill

Steve Herro

Seventh Generation Interfaith and Region VI (Cleveland, Ohio) have co-signed a letter to Sen. Robert Portman (Ohio), requesting his support of a business supply transparency bill for this Congress.  Portman is a key member of the Senate Finance Committee, likely starting point of such a bill.  The effort is an attempt to resurrect the The Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015 (H.R. 3226/S.1968); last session’s version garnered great support from numerous socially responsible investors.

ICCR releases 2017 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide

ICCR releases 2017 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide

Steve Herro

Accompanying photo used with permission, Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility

ICCR recently published its 2017 Proxy Resolutions and Voting Guide. The Guide outlines the proxy season and contextualizes the 283 resolutions that were filed by ICCR members, with a deeper dive on several key campaigns they are leading. Read the Executive Summary or download the full report. ICCR hosted a webinar to provide an overview of the upcoming proxy season in advance of the public release of the Guide. Listen to the webinar recording.  Or, view the side deck here.
SGI members are advised to forward the Guide to their financial managers with instructions to vote your proxy in support of these resolutions.