Politicized Investing - Blackrock punishes 53 companies over inaction on climate change

March 19, 2024, 06:00 PM

Lt CHEG

quote:
Originally posted by tatortodd:
Sigforumites could band together to become activist/nuisance investors in Blackrock. We could model ourselves after Engine No. 1 that resulted in ExxonMobil adding 2 board members to their board of directors. They were able to write a shareholder initiative and get it up for vote at the annual meeting, and leading up to the annual meeting they had a pretty savvy media campaign (e.g. near as I can tell never stated how many shares they owned).

We could call ourselves Engine P210. Blackrock trades for about $800 so for 10 shares we'd need to pool $8k. We'd need a Sigforumite:

attorney to help legally formalize the group.

with media experience to help craft a strategy to get our message on conservative media

with experience writing shareholder initiatives

with website design experience to create a website explaining our shareholder initiative to kill off ESG at Blackrock

spokesperson to be the face of the group for the media

I would absolutely support this and kick in some money. I’m serious as a heart attack and ready to do something to fight the climate change hoax in particular, and ESG in general. Do you really think that we could make this work?

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

March 19, 2024, 06:49 PM

erj_pilot

quote:
Originally posted by oddball:
^^^^^^^^

Sorry, erj_pilot, nine posts above you, beat you by 2 hours.

Isn't that one of Para's pet peeves??? Not perusing the thread before posting?? Think I've read that recently. Just checking.....

(Hopefully it's obvious that isn't meant for you, oddball.)

"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24

March 19, 2024, 09:26 PM

tatortodd

quote:
Originally posted by Lt CHEG:
quote:
Originally posted by tatortodd:
Sigforumites could band together to become activist/nuisance investors in Blackrock. We could model ourselves after Engine No. 1 that resulted in ExxonMobil adding 2 board members to their board of directors. They were able to write a shareholder initiative and get it up for vote at the annual meeting, and leading up to the annual meeting they had a pretty savvy media campaign (e.g. near as I can tell never stated how many shares they owned).

We could call ourselves Engine P210. Blackrock trades for about $800 so for 10 shares we'd need to pool $8k. We'd need a Sigforumite:

attorney to help legally formalize the group.

with media experience to help craft a strategy to get our message on conservative media

with experience writing shareholder initiatives

with website design experience to create a website explaining our shareholder initiative to kill off ESG at Blackrock

spokesperson to be the face of the group for the media

I would absolutely support this and kick in some money. I’m serious as a heart attack and ready to do something to fight the climate change hoax in particular, and ESG in general. Do you really think that we could make this work?

Yes, but it'd be an uphill battle.

The key is the initial media publicity needs to land an entity with deep pockets. Engine No 1 landed 2 large pension funds and 3 Wall Street firms. That shifted the narrative from who Engine No 1 was to how many proxy votes they had.

March 20, 2024, 07:46 AM

dking271

While Blackerock was instrumental in crafting the ESG guidelines and framework, ESG scoring is a Department of Labor ruling as it relates to defined benefit plans (pensions). This rule was crafted by Biden’s DOL and pertains to pensions as it is the only place that DOL has control over. As someone mentioned before, ExxonMobil added a couple of environmental activists to their board to get the score needed to stay in the institutional pension space. I truly suspect AB InBev leadership was jockeying their score around when they hired that guy pretending to be a girl a few years ago. Blackrock is responsible for making this whole thing happen and I hope a day comes when they are punished for it.

March 20, 2024, 08:01 AM

tatortodd

quote:
Originally posted by dking271:
As someone mentioned before, ExxonMobil added a couple of environmental activists to their board to get the score needed to stay in the institutional pension space.

Not quite. ExxonMobil didn't voluntarily add board members to get a ESG score. Engine No 1 created a shareholder initiative and shareholders forced ExxonMobil board change. That's why I proposed Engine P210 to force change at Blackrock.

AB InBev was a different case where they were voluntarily monkeying around to get an ESG score