The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is undergoing a radical transformation of its role as a regulator. Defying decades of precedence, Chairman Paul Atkins is driving a profound deregulatory agenda. In doing so, he is eroding the commission’s legal authority to develop procedures and enforce statutes developed over the past 80 years. Natural Investments has
Natural Investments, through its involvement with the Shareholder Rights Group, met with SEC Chairman Paul Atkins earlier this year. We expressed concerns regarding the commission’s decision to eliminate its written responses to companies wanting to exclude shareholder proposals from ballots, noting that it deprives companies and investors clarity about the permissibility of proposals and works
The current administration is doing everything in its power to block shareholder accountability measures designed to hold corporations accountable for their policies and practices. Shareholders have lost significant leverage to change company policies and practices from the inside, and an adversarial dynamic between shareholders and the companies they own has developed. Current SEC Chairman Paul
Natural investments’ Racial equity team (RE team) was established in 2021 to champion our firm’s internal efforts to foster a just, equitable, and safe workplace for all advisors and staff members. The team is currently composed of five advisors who serve a term of at least two years, and participants are compensated for being part
Being the Change: Natural Investments’ Commitment to Racial Equity Read More »
This map shows which states are pro or anti ESG as of June 2023. Check back monthly for updates to this map. Sources: Ballotopedia and law firm Ropes & Gray. As of June 30, seven states have passed legislation to allow the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in state investment decision-making, while 22 states have
Driven by ever-increasing investor demand, most major investment institutions are practicing sustainable, responsible, and impact (SRI) investing. As a result, the number of products claiming to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria continues to rise. Per Morningstar®, there are now more than 600 ESG mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the U.S., including 87
Our Moment Anyone who’s been a sustainable and responsible investor for more than 30 years, long before it was popular, knows how difficult it’s been for the approach to gain mainstream acceptance. We’ve all watched with great pleasure as more and more investors have increasingly aligned their investments with their values, but it took quite
Our Moment Anyone who’s been a sustainable and responsible investor for more than 30 years, long before it was popular, knows how difficult it’s been for the approach to gain mainstream acceptance. We’ve all watched with great pleasure as more and more investors have increasingly aligned their investments with their values, but it took quite
HOW MONDRAGON BECAME THE WORLD’S LARGEST CO-OP The Mondragon Corporation, a collection of more than 90 co-ops that employ approximately 80,000 people, is an interesting case study in Spain. The industrial-sized conglomerate owned by its workers suggests an alternative future for capitalism. The New Yorker
Our engagements with lawmakers this quarter focused on deforestation, climate change risk, and workers’ rights. We signed a collaborative investor letter facilitated by Domini Investments in support of the Fostering Overseas Rule of Law and Environmentally Sound Trade (FOREST) Act, which prohibits access to U.S. markets for commodities that originate from illegally deforested land. The