wfn.org | United Methodists push for responsible investing; corporations listen

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 2, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615) 742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-21-71BP{257}

By Gregory Crawford*

CHICAGO (UMNS) - Money talks; and with $10 billion to invest, the United
Methodist Church's General Board of Pension and Health Benefits has a loud
voice to encourage corporations to consider their "triple" bottom-line
responsibilities, namely financial, social and environmental.

According to Vidette Bullock Mixon, director of corporate relations and
social concerns for the pension agency, during the recent proxy season, when
most publicly traded companies hold their annual meetings, the agency used
that financial clout to file more than 32 shareholder resolutions.

"The (companies) that received resolutions are ones in which the General
Board [of Pensions and Health Benefits] has a significant investment, are
traditionally located in the Chicago metro area and are leaders in their
industry," Mixon told a gathering of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations
on Wednesday. The United Methodist Church's pension agency is based in
Evanston, a suburb of Chicago.

She said shareholder resolutions focused on seven areas: corporate
governance; the environment; diversity; financial accountability; global
accountability; affordable drugs for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; and
the sale of weapons to military governments outside the United States.

In addition to offering resolutions for shareholders' proxy voting, the
pension agency's staff and representatives meet regularly with corporate
management, urging them to take socially responsible positions on key issues,
she said.

"Corporate advocacy includes not only raising issues but complementing
companies on positive actions they take," Mixon added.

At least one corporate giant is grateful for the church's involvement. "The
fact that faith-based organizations and other socially responsible investor
groups continue to push us on a number of things, I think, keeps companies in
a certain balance," Miles D. White, chairman and chief executive officer of
Abbott Laboratories, told the group.

While Mixon commended White and Abbott, a maker of pharmaceutical and medical
products for its work in areas such as battling the HIV/AIDS pandemic in
Africa and delivering humanitarian aid to Liberia, she said the company could
do more.

"I don't want you to think we think Abbott has done everything they could,"
she said. "We still continue to encourage and challenge the company to do
more" in areas such as working to solve the issue of drug patents, which she
said can restrict access in developing nations to critical medicines."

The pension board has also taken an active public role to ensure passage of
legislation to implement U.S. President George W. Bush's proposed plan to
spend $15 billion over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS globally.

White said the key for Abbott and other corporations is finding an
appropriate balance between doing what is socially right and what is
financially right and feasible, particularly in the area of combating
HIV/AIDS in Africa.

"We will never be right. Somebody is going to be dissatisfied with the
balance that we have drawn," he added. "We guide what we do by determining
what an appropriate balance is, what we can afford to do - and yet find the
balance on what we think the right thing to do is."

He explained that the company is guided by its sense of being a global
citizen, which also means the company is affected by nearly any situation
that arises around the world.

"As a global company, we have a stake in the outcome of issues all around the
world and in today's highly interconnected world - people are brought
together more closely than ever before by a combination of transportation and
information technology - we now know that wherever a problem starts or an
issue arises, it is likely to reach us and reach us quickly," White added.

Regarding the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa, White said Abbott has been
involved since 1985 and its involvement has not been limited to providing
treatment but has included education, working on infrastructure for remote
villages and improving hospitals.

 "It's about doing what is right because we are in a unique position to do
so," he told the church council. He said that by 2007, Abbott will have
invested or spent more than $100 million on programs in Africa and that
amount does not include losses on drugs the company provides at cost or at a
loss or lost opportunity costs.

Mixon said, although the General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits does
not directly get involved with projects outside the United States, the United
Methodist Church is active through other organizations in providing funds and
assistance in construction of buildings and educational projects. As a church
agency with considerable financial assets at its disposal, however, the
pensions board will continue to wield its clout to push for social, economic
and environmental improvement from the companies in which it invests, she
added.

"The general board remains committed to the premise that the investor and the
socially responsible company can work together to achieve results that
benefit society," she said. "We are going to continue to use investment
influence to hold companies to high standards of corporate responsibility."

Abbott's White reiterated that such investment influence helps companies
maintain that balance between being socially and financially responsible.

"It forces you to consider the points of view of a lot of different people,"
he said. "We haven't had a conflict that I thought was difficult to talk
about even if we disagreed at the end of the day."
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*Crawford is a freelance journalist in Chicago

 
 
 
 
Pre-General Conference News Briefing set for January '04
 
Feb. 25, 2003 News media contact: M. Garlinda Burton7
(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 10-21-71B{104}

By United Methodist News Service
 
Religion journalists and church media representatives are invited to attend a
news briefing Jan. 29-31, 2004, on the pressing legislative concerns to be
considered by the United Methodist Church's governing body next year.
 
The 2004 Pre-General Conference News Briefing will be held at the Ramada
Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh. The city will also host the General Conference,
the denomination's highest legislative body, April 27-May 7, 2004.
 
General Conference, which comprises 1,000 lay and clergy delegates from
around the world, meets every four years to set policy and direction for the
9 million-member denomination, the second-largest Protestant body in the
United States. 
 
Presenters at the briefing will answer journalists' questions on issues
facing the conference, including: the role of youth and young adults in the
future church; the meaning and nature of Holy Communion; and possible church
pronouncements on contemporary social issues such as war and terrorism
 
Registration information will be mailed to media representatives this summer.
For more details, contact Tim Tanton at United Methodist News Service, (615)
742-5470 or ttanton@umcom.org.

# # #

 
 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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