wfn.org | Environmental Concerns Head List of Issues to Be Addressed

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1-Aug.-1996 
 
 
 
96277   Environmental Concerns Head List of Issues to Be  
 Addressed by Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee 
 
                      by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
PORTLAND, Ore.--With a focus on ecumenical cooperation, the Presbyterian 
Church's Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) has 
chosen to direct much of its attention in the coming year to environmental 
issues.     
 
     At its mid-June meeting here, the committee -- which advises 
Presbyterian stockholders on investment issues related to General Assembly 
policies -- also determined as focal points for its future work community 
reinvestment and equal credit opportunity, employment and environmental 
standards for transnational corporations (especially along the U.S.-Mexico 
border), employment-related issues and violence in society. 
 
     The key thrust of MRTI's environmental work has been identifying 
specific environmental problems -- toxic pollution of air, soil and water 
as well as global climate change -- and then identifying industry groups 
related to those issues, such as companies in the petrochemical, paper and 
forest products, electronics and semi-conductor and utilities industries, 
and monitoring their corporate behavior in those fields. 
 
     For a number of years, MRTI has worked ecumenically within the 
Interfaith Committee on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) to persuade 
companies to endorse the CERES (Coalition for Environmentally Responsible 
Economies) Principles, a set of environmental standards that participating 
companies agree to follow.  The Rev. William Somplatsky-Jarman reported 
that Bethlehem Steel has become the newest Fortune 500 company to endorse 
CERES.  In the coming year, MRTI and ICCR will focus their attention on 
International Paper, Chevron, Intel and Unocal. 
 
     The goal of MRTI's efforts in community reinvestment and equal credit 
opportunity is to increase access to capital in order to revitalize 
distressed communities.  Those efforts have focused on compliance with the 
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which requires banking institutions to 
meet credit needs of their entire communities, including low- and 
moderate-income families and minority businesses. 
 
     The committee has slated Countrywide Credit, Golden West, California 
Federal Bank, Norwest (the largest originator of mortgage loans in the 
country), Bank of Boston and Barnett Banks for monitoring and dialogue. 
 
     For a number of years, MRTI has focused much attention on the 
practices of "maquiladoras," U.S. companies that locate plants in northern 
Mexico, where environmental and labor standards are lower than in this 
country. Cooperative arrangements with the Coalition for Justice in the 
Maquiladoras and Border Links have enabled hundreds of Presbyterians to 
take a firsthand look at working and environmental conditions along the 
U.S.-Mexico border.  MRTI has filed numerous shareholder resolutions with 
companies having poor records in the area.  The committee has standing 
authorization from the General Assembly to file resolutions with Ford and 
General Motors. 
 
     Over the years, MRTI has been active in employment-related issues such 
as equal employment opportunity, affirmative action, pay equity and 
occupational health and safety.  The committee voted to continue to work 
with the ecumenical community to pursue its basic program of EEO disclosure 
and encourage broader diversity on boards of directors and in top 
management. 
 
     Last year, MRTI participated in seven shareholder initiatives with 
media companies concerning violence in their programming and with retail 
companies regarding their marketing of toy weapons that are too easily 
confused with real ones.  
 
     Somplatsky-Jarman and the Rev. Gary Miller of Easton, Pa., chair of 
the committee, reported on the progress of dialogues with General Electric, 
the parent company of NBC-TV.  Plans have been made for further dialogues 
with the company, while the United Methodist Church is taking the lead in 
dialogues with Time-Warner, another entertainment giant. 

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