CORPORATE boards need to take religious organizations more seriously, says Sister Patricia Wolf, executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a nonprofit group based in New York that promotes corporate social responsibility. Here are excerpts from a conversation.An article in the 7/2/06 issues of the New York Times reads…
Q. How big is your organization?
A. We have about 275 faith-based institutional investors that have about $110 billion under investment. We also have affiliate members, which are long-term investment firms, maybe pension funds. We have about 30 of those.
Q. Are your efforts to get resolutions approved by shareholder vote successful?
A. There are different ways of talking about success. One way is the vote. Many years ago, we would have been happy with 3 percent of the shareholder vote. Today, we’re seeing much stronger votes. If we take a look at our human rights resolutions, three years ago the average vote was between 6 and 8 percent. That has grown. This year, our human rights resolution filed at Boeing got 22.5 percent, 25 percent at Chevron and 23 percent at Halliburton. What we understand that to mean is that there is greater support for these resolutions on the part of institutional investors.
Q. Why would a pension fund or a mutual fund care about human rights?
A. Companies today can see that there are issues of reputational risk. No company wants to be tagged as a violator of human rights. From a financial point of view, that can lead to exposure and liability. Long-term institutional investors understand that.
Q. Do you work with community activists on so-called redlining practices?
A. How we align ourselves with other organizations varies. Their strategy has to fit the strategy of long-term institutional investors. That’s fundamental. We bring sophisticated research to the table. We collaborate with an organization called Cannicor, which assists us with research. Banks understand the research.
Q. Did you help convince Wal-Mart to disclose its data on the employment of women and minorities this year?
A. That was a huge success for us this year. The reason was that the proponent of that resolution, the Sisters of Charity, had filed it seven times, including every year since 2002. The votes kept increasing each year. Last year, it reached 18 percent. We thought that was a very good vote. The resolution has served to keep the dialogue open with Wal-Mart. The resolution was filed again this year, and Wal-Mart’s response was that it would post the Equal Opportunity Employment data on its Web site, and it invited the proponents to come to the annual meeting and address the issue.
Q. What was the point?
A. The point of it is to be able to track the hiring of women and minorities. Wal-Mart has made efforts to improve diversity on its board and among what they call their “associates.” This is a public statement of a breakdown on minorities and women in the workplace. It’s a good first step.
