Big Day @ Big Oil
Wow! Between the historic Dutch court ruling on Shell, and the Exxon and Chevron shareholder meetings, Wednesday, May 26th was a really big day.
In addition to the ousted board members at Exxon, and an incredible 61% vote on cutting climate emissions at Chevron, Newground had 2 governance proposals on the Chevron proxy to address climate, rainforest pollution, and human rights.
Check out our press release below, and please watch, “like”, and share the three videos with your networks – we'd greatly appreciate anything you can do to help amplify these!
- The videos were filmed for us by actor Susan Sarandon, Pope Francis' Economy of Francesco, and exiled Burmese human rights activist Khin Ohmar.
- All are available at: www.newground.net/Chevron, along with other celebrity videos.
Voices of the World to Chevron | |
Burmese Human Rights Activist Addresses Chevron | |
Susan Sarandon Challenges Chevron |
Some are already saying that May 26th will go down as a watershed date in climate change history.
We are honored to be part of this crucial work, and can only do so because of our clients’ visionary insight and decision to connect money with what matters.
Heartfelt thanks!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bruce Herbert | team @ newground.net
CHEVRON SHAREHOLDERS TELL MANAGEMENT:
“OUR SHARED ENEMY IS POLLUTION, NOT HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS”
SEATTLE, May 26, 2021 – Wednesday morning, at Chevron's annual meeting, Newground Social Investment presented two shareholder proposals that challenged the company's contributions to climate change, its support of Myanmar's genocidal military government, its campaign to evade a $9.5 billion liability for monumental oil pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest, and its stratagem of legal harassment aimed at Steven Donziger, the Ecuadorians’ successful attorney.
Proposal #8 “Independent Chair” called for separating the roles of CEO and Board Chair. It was presented to the virtual-only shareholder meeting in a video message titled “Voices of the World to Chevron”1 that featured a globally diverse set of young leaders from the Economy of Francesco,2 a network of economists, entrepreneurs, and changemakers chartered by Pope Francis in 2019 to help transform the global economy.
Proposal #9 “Special Meetings” sought to make it easier for shareholders to call a special meeting without the Board's control. The measure was presented in this video message3 by Khin Ohmar, an exiled Burmese human rights activist with Progressive Voice.4
Actor & activist Susan Sarandon strongly endorsed both proposals in a video message5 which took Chevron to task for its poor environmental and human rights record.
“Our shared enemy is climate change and pollution, not human rights lawyers, the victims, or their advocates,” Sarandon said.
Despite the Board's opposition, both proposals received unusually high levels of shareholder support – 29% for Proposal #8 and 33% for Proposal #9 – according to preliminary figures reported at the meeting.
Bruce Herbert, Newground's chief executive, was pleased with those preliminary results, saying:
“Point 1 – given the large numbers of shares typically controlled by management, the Board, and other insiders, results like these often represent a true majority of independent shareowners. Point 2 – when investors, Nobel Laureates, celebrities, members of Congress, and extensions of the Vatican all coalesce around the same message, it is time for Chevron to pay heed and to reform its ways.”
WATCH THE VIDEOS:
- Voices of the World to Chevron | https://youtu.be/kfKWg1gZVh8
- Burmese Human Rights Activist Addresses Chevron | https://youtu.be/qP5cgjbQi
- Susan Sarandon Challenges Chevron | https://youtu.be/wKcKx8Gtdk0
For more information, including full text of the shareholder proposals, Congressional letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and additional celebrity videos, visit www.newground.net/Chevron
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1 https://youtu.be/kfKWg1gZVh8 | Voices of the World to Chevron
2 www.FrancescoEconomy.org | The Economy of Francesco
3 https://youtu.be/qP5cgjbQiRE | Burmese Human Rights Activist Addresses Chevron
4 www.ProgressiveVoiceMyanmar.org | Progressive Voice
5 https://youtu.be/wKcKx8Gtdk0 | Susan Sarandon Challenges Chevron
