October, 30 2019, 12:00am EDT
Gender Lens Investing Tool Adds Sustainability Report Card, Grading Funds on Climate, Deforestation, and Weapons
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
As You Sow, a leading non-profit promoting sustainable investing, today announced that its Gender Equality Funds investing tool has been upgraded with a first-of-its-kind sustainability report card, grading investments on six environmental and social issues including gender equality, fossil fuels, deforestation, and weapons. The updated search tool helps investors find mutual funds and ETFs that match their values, and have financial returns that beat the market.
The sustainability report card brings together data from As You Sow's suite of six Invest Your Values tools. The new report card allows investors to easily see in one place if your 401(k) options or personal portfolio is invested in:
- Companies with poor gender equality policies.
- Fossil fuels, including coal-fired utilities, pipelines, and oil field services.
- Companies contributing to the destruction of the Amazon and Indonesian rainforests by producing palm oil, beef, soy, timber, rubber, or paper/pulp.
- Assault weapons, ammunition, cluster munitions, nukes, and military grade weapons.
"Ninety-one million American workers with assets worth more than $8.4 trillion are invested in the current economic paradigm that is destroying our planet and civil society; yet very few even realize it," Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow, explained. "If we want a safe, just, and sustainable future we need to shift our investments into companies that support our values. These tools empower every investor, from employees with a 401(k) retirement plan to individual investors, to know what they own so they can invest in a future that they want to live in."
The Invest Your Values free, online search tools offer investors insight into the environmental and social impact of their portfolios, alongside traditional metrics like financial returns. Investors can search for funds that earn the highest annualized returns, and the highest grades for the issues that matter to them. Each fund is compared to benchmark indexes like the S&P 500 on financial performance and sustainability results.
"People have the power to create the future they want to see by investing with their values," Ruth Shaber, founder and president of Tara Health Foundation, said. "Since the bulk of wealth in this country is invested in mutual funds, tools like Gender Equality Funds are essential. These new upgrades make aligning your investments with your values easier than ever since there are many funds that get an A grade for gender equality and outperform the market."
As You Sow's Invest Your Values suite of tools are free to use, and were built to encourage investors to move their hard-earned savings to funds that are aligned with their values. Each site has an action toolkit explaining how individuals can talk with their financial advisor or retirement plan manager to add socially responsible investment options.
"Americans increasingly want to invest responsibly but it can be difficult to find mutual funds that are actually responsible and not just marketed that way," Green Century President Leslie Samuelrich said. "As You Sow's report card is an extremely useful tool for investors who want to separate the greenwashed chaff from the authentically-responsible wheat."
As You Sow's Invest Your Values websites include: Gender Equality Funds, Fossil Free Funds, Weapon Free Funds, Gun Free Funds, Deforestation Free Funds, and Tobacco Free Funds.
As You Sow is the nation's non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change that benefits people, planet, and profit. Our mission is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that he is commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 Americans and pardoning 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes, a move the White House described as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
But the president's sweeping use of his clemency power as his term nears its conclusion did not appear to extend to any of the 40 men currently on death row—some of whom have been there for decades.
According to a White House fact sheet, those who received commutations "have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the Covid-era CARES Act," a law that extended the amount of time in which people could be placed in home confinement to reduce the spread of the virus in prisons.
The White House did not name those who received pardons or commutations but said the list includes a "decorated military veteran," a "nurse who has led emergency response for several natural disasters," and "an addiction counselor who volunteers his time to help young people find their purpose."
The Biden Justice Department paused federal executions in 2021, but President-elect Donald Trump pledged on the campaign trail to expand the use of the death penalty and is expected to allow the executions of the 40 men on death row to take place if they're still there when he takes office next month.
In a statement on Thursday, Biden said that he has "the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."
"That is why, today, I am pardoning 39 people who have shown successful rehabilitation and have shown commitment to making their communities stronger and safer," the president said. "I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences—many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices. These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the Covid pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance."
Biden, who campaigned on ending the death penalty at the federal level, vowed to "take more steps in the weeks ahead" as his administration reviews clemency petitions, leaving open the possibility of commutations for death row prisoners.
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The push to pass the NDAA comes as this congressional session winds down and after the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) announced last month that it had failed yet another audit—which several lawmakers highlighted after the Wednesday vote.
Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chairs and co-founders of the Defense Spending Reduction Caucus, said in a joint statement, "Time and time again, Congress seems to be able to find the funds necessary to line the pockets of defense contractors while neglecting the problems everyday Americans face here at home."
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Several of the 124 House Democrats who voted against the NDAA cited those "culture war" policies, in addition to concerns about how the Pentagon spends massive amounts of money that could go toward improving lives across the country.
"Once again, Congress has passed a massive military authorization bill that prioritizes endless military spending over the critical needs of American families. This year's NDAA designates $900 billion for military spending," said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), noting the audit failures. "While I recognize the long-overdue 14.5% raise for our lowest-ranking enlisted personnel is important, this bill remains flawed. The bloated military budget continues to take away crucial funding from programs that could help millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet."
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As Omar, a leading critic of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, also pointed out: "The NDAA includes a provision that blocks the Pentagon from using data on casualties and deaths from the Gaza Ministry of Health or any sources relying on those statistics. This is an alarming erasure of the suffering of the Palestinian people, ignoring the human toll of ongoing violence."
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