ICCR is increasing its profile with a Global Warming Shareholder Campaign

ICCR is increasing its profile with a Global Warming Shareholder Campaign After meetings Tuesday, September 20, 2005 in NYC, a series of telecons have been set. The Fuel Sustainability Investor Education Initiative: ICCR is convening a series of conference calls this fall to brief investors about energy technologies, their economic and environmental costs:

Session 1: Electric Utility Industry September 29th at 1:00 PM
Session 2: Nuclear, Coal and LNG October 6th at 1:00 PM
Session 3: Hydro, solar, Wind and Biomass n October 27th at 1:00 PM
Session 4: Transportation: Oil, Bio-fuels and Fuel Cells November 8th at 1:00 PM
After a few gremlins, the telecon rolled forward, with speakers from Anne Reynolds of Environmental Advocates of New York, Andrew Brengle from KLD and Lena Hansen from Rocky Mountain Institute.

ICCR is over thirty years has been a leader of the corporate social responsibility movement, mainly as an advocate for shareholder activism, using their network of members to lobby for change in corporate behaviour, mainly in socially and environmentally responsible.

According to its website, ICCR's membership is an association of 275 faith- based institutional investors, including national denominations, religious communities, pension funds, endowments, hospital corporations, economic development funds and publishing companies. In the just-finished 2005 proxy season, US shareholders saw something new in proxy proposals: an attempt to reform an entire industry by separating the chair and chief executive officer positions. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility led an effort in sponsoring shareholder resolutions calling for revitalized leadership in the pharmaceutical industry through separating the roles of the chair and CEO at America's largest drug companies.

ICCR efforts on shareholder actions for climate change/global warming issues are being ramped up in 2005 with the Global Warming Shareholder Campaign. Although ICCR has been pushing companies on climate change since 1991, in recent years it has succeeded in eliciting statements by coal-fired utilities such as AEP, Cinergy, and FirstEnergy acknowledging their role in global warming and pledging cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. From silence, it is progress.

ICCR’s 2005-2006 shareholder campaign has three main themes:

· New focus on energy alternatives—renewable energy and efficiency technologies
· Broader reach to new sectors and new companies, as well as deeper into traditional target companies
· Broader and deeper institutional investor support—greater effort to attract mainstream investors (pension funds, foundations, university endowments)

In addtion to electricity generators and oil companies, ICCR shareholder actions will target auto companies, banks, home builders, REITS, big box retailers, and insurance companies. Transport companies will follow in 2006.

ICCR wants to survey public pension fund voting practices on climate resolutions, piggybacking on the mutual funds voting scorecard, similar to the one developed by CERES and IRRC's Doug Coggan.

The fesity head of ICCR for the past 4 years is Sr. Patricia Wolf, RSM. In her four years as Executive Director, Patricia has spoken at major national and international gatherings, including The Conference Board, The Triple Bottom Line Investing Conference in Brussels, a conference of socially responsible investment managers in London, The Church Benefit Association and the Social Investment Forum. She was a member of the ICCR Governing Board for eight years, and chaired the ICCR Board from 1982 to 1984. She has also been mobilized Roman Catholic investment in economic development in low-income and minority communities.

One of her best associates is Sister Patricia Daly [Business Face of faith-based investors a nun CEOs are recognizing By Geoff Dougherty, Tribune staff reporter 1,833 words 12 June 2005 Chicago TribuneChicago]. "With her unassuming looks and cream-colored knit blazer, hardly seems the type to raise hell at a Fortune 500 company's annual meeting. But dozens of times a year, she does just that. She leaves her home with a Palm Pilot and a copy of Institutional Investor magazine in her bag and arrives at meetings ready to press for social responsibility. Daly is perhaps the most visible public face of an interconnected group of faith-based investor organizations that have become increasingly influential. Their power flows from investments of more than $100 billion, their willingness to file shareholder proposals year after year, and the fact that few executives want their company to be seen fighting nuns."