Engagement

Trillium Asset Management has been a pioneer in the social investment industry. We were one of the first firms in the social investment industry to actively engage corporate managers on social and environmental concerns, and we were instrumental in the founding of CERES, the unique coalition that brings together environmentally concerned shareholders, corporations, and environmental advocacy groups.

Our methods of engagement include:

Direct Dialogue With Corporate Managers

Trillium Asset Management is in constant communication with corporate officials. This communication can range from asking simple questions to clarify our understanding of policies, to engaging in long-term, in-depth dialogue involving multiple stakeholders.

Shareholder Resolutions

If dialogue fails, Trillium Asset Management is willing to exercise the rights of its clients as shareholders to file a resolution. Shareholder resolutions come up for a vote at the company’s annual meeting and can be a key rallying point of a larger campaign to a change a corporation’s behavior. To view a list of our current resolutions at corporations, visit our Resolutions page.

Public Policy Initiatives

On occasion, Trillium Asset Management has taken action to change public policy. Representatives of Trillium Asset Management have testified to the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and city councils. We have also lobbied public officials on legislative and regulatory policies.

• Trillium Asset Management was a leader in advocating for the passage of the Massachusetts Burma Law, which was modeled on state and local selective purchasing laws aimed at companies that did business in South Africa during the apartheid years. (For more information, see our Burma issue page.)
• In 1996, we testified before Congress in support of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, a federal bill which would prohibit employment job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• We testified in support of the Massachusetts Insurance Community Reinvestment Act in 1997, the first state law in the nation to incent insurance companies to make community investments.
• In 1998, we joined with the Corporate Sunshine Working Group in petitioning the Securities and Exchange Commission to take enforcement action against companies that violate environmental disclosure rules, and to clarify corporate reporting requirements on environmental and social issues. A letter sent by over 100 groups also called on the SEC to take steps towards creating more comprehensive corporate disclosure requirements, and to revive an information sharing agreement between the SEC and the Environmental Protection Agency.
• In 2001, Trillium Asset Management endorsed the International Right-to-Know bill. The bill builds on existing U.S. environmental and human rights disclosure laws and extends their scope to include the foreign operations of U.S. corporations. Working with a broad coalition that includes Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth and Sierra Club, Trillium Asset Management is actively lobbying members of Congress to support the bill.

Proxy Voting

Each year, Trillium Asset Management votes its clients shares in favor of over one hundred resolutions moved at corporate annual meetings to press companies to improve their environmental and social records. Unlike many institutional money managers, we will support shareholder proposals on social and environmental issues against management’s recommendation if we believe that the resolution warrants shareholder support. Click here to view our proxy voting guidelines.