{"id":23865,"date":"2019-02-04T12:38:31","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T17:38:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=23865"},"modified":"2020-01-03T14:42:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T19:42:45","slug":"how-exxon-taught-me-that-shareholders-can-change-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/how-exxon-taught-me-that-shareholders-can-change-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How Exxon Taught Me That Shareholders Can Change the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to February 2019<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"I rose to the podium, looked Exxon then-CEO Rex Tillerson in the eye, and spoke. \u201cWhy does Exxon fund climate-denying organizations, when you publicly support a carbon tax?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Tillerson deflected the question at the time: \u201cwe would never impinge on ALEC\u2019s free speech.\u201d<\/em> D\u2019oh. Two years later, in July 2018, Exxon ceased funding ALEC, the climate change denying organization I highlighted.[1]<\/span> Who was I? Just a college student with a tiny amount of stock, who took it upon myself to write a shareholder resolution. Socially responsible investors like Zevin Asset Management and Walden Asset Management, helped me get on that podium at Exxon\u2019s annual meeting. \u201cHoly cow, more people can be doing this!\u201d<\/em>, I said to myself. So I co-founded Stake, because I saw that David could beat Goliath.<\/p>\n

Your Stake<\/h2>\n

Stake organizes shareowners around petitions. At yourstake.org you can sync with your investment account and use your shares to Ask<\/em> a company or mutual fund to improve. With a few clicks, you can support Asks<\/em> like this one for Vanguard to support corporate political spending disclosure: https:\/\/www.yourstake.org\/ask\/vanguard-require-disclosure-of-political-contributions<\/a><\/p>\n

Stake has a not-so-secret sauce. We pair popular Asks<\/em> with Champions – socially responsible fund managers that negotiate with the company management on behalf of all the individual shareowner supporters.<\/p>\n

Again and again, Champions lead the charge in getting companies to protect all workers from discrimination, remove firearms from grocery store shelves[2]<\/span>, and limit financing of coal power plants.[3]<\/span> My Champions, Walden and Zevin, can now be yours through Stake.<\/p>\n

Now, Stake can be your podium.<\/p>\n

How I Got Here<\/h2>\n

I studied physics, so I usually like numbers. But the climate change numbers terrify me. Four years before my encounter with Tillerson, as a wide-eyed college freshman, I read the Stern review on the economics of climate change. One-sixth of the world could face threats to their water supply. Hundreds of millions of people could be left without access to sufficient food. And the World Bank said that to have any chance at avoiding a climate disaster, annual emissions have to peak by 2020. That number, 2020, stuck with me. Just a few years for the world to switch to the right path.<\/p>\n

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