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Weyerhauser
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Potlatch
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Boise
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Plum
Creek Timber Company
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Exxon
Mobil
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Dominion
Resources
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Visits since 14 May 02.
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HEADLINES
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FULL
HEADLINES
INDEX
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BART
AND JOHN'S UPDATE ON CORPORATE
REFORM
by Bartlett Naylor, Director,
Green CAP and Dr. John Osborn,
Chair (Railroads & Clearcuts
Campaign), 11 July
2002
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PRESSURING
FOR A CHANGE TO BUSINESS AS
USUAL
Shareholder activists, global
reporting, and social investing
combine in pressuring business to
do better
Tide Pool, 20 May 2002
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CONSERVATIONIST
BRINGS A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION IN
FRONT OF
POTLATCH
JOHN OSBORN AUTHORED HIS FIRST
SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTION IN
1996.
Spokesman-Review, May 14,
2002
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POTLATCH:
Extravagant dividends bleed
company of
assets,
13 May 2002
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INVADING
THE
BOARDROOM
Editorial, Post Register,
Idaho Falls, ID, 4 May
2002
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GREEN
SHAREHOLDERS WIN REFORMS AT
WEYERHAEUSER
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BOISE
CASCADE: Seeds of Reform
Planted
Roadless Controversy reveals
underlying problems with
management
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GREEN
INVESTORS WIN SUPERMAJORITIES AT
BOISE
CASCADE
Federal forest policy stance
underscores need for internal
reforms
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ENRON
LESSONS: SHAREHOLDERS NEED
TO GET
INVOLVED
Green Investors Seek
Management
Accountability
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BOISE
RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
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WEYERHAEUSER
RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
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ABOUT
GREEN CAP:
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NEWS
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11
July 2002, Update
__________________________________________________
BART AND JOHN'S UPDATE ON
CORPORATE REFORM
by
Bartlett Naylor, Director, Green
CAP and Dr. John Osborn, Chair
(Railroads & Clearcuts
Campaign)
Summer,
2002
Dear
friend of the Green Corporate
Accountability
Project:
Our
efforts at corporate
accountability won special
attention from investors and
media this spring.
BOISE
CASCADE: At Boise Cascade, we
tied the record for annual
meeting votes, winning 80% on a
proposal calling for annual
director elections. We also
scored a victory on a second
accountability initiative, this
one aimed at removing a layer of
insulation of management known as
a "poison pill."
...
[FULL
ARTICLE]
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20
May 2002, WEB ARTICLE
__________________________________________________
Pressuring for a Change to
Business as Usual
Shareholder activists, global
reporting, and social investing
combine in pressuring business to
do better
by
DEREK REIBER
John
Osborn, a Spokane physician, is
looking to change the old motto
"business as usual."
Working
with a group called Green CAP
(Corporate Accountability
Project), Osborn and other
stockholders in publicly held
companies are looking to enact
social and environmental change
from the inside-out. Muscling
their way into corporate
boardrooms through the power of
the pocketbook, Osborn and
company have pressured companies
through the issuing of
shareholder resolutions, in the
process using a central
foundation of American capitalism
-- shareholder ownership in a
company -- to get companies to
change their ways. [
FULL
ARTICLE
]
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14 May 2002, NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE
__________________________________________________
CONSERVATIONIST BRINGS A NEW
YEAR'S RESOLUTION IN FRONT OF
POTLATCH
John Osborn authored his first
shareholder resolution in
1996.
It
was a new approach for the
Spokane physician and longtime
conservationist. After years of
testifying before Congress and
appealing timber sales, Osborn
figured that pressure from
company shareholders might be the
most effective avenue for
long-term change.
Every
spring -- when annual meetings
crop up like a new growth of
dandelions -- Osborn authors at
least one shareholder
resolution.
"Our
effort is to find common ground
between people concerned with the
environment and Wall Street
investors. Oftentimes,
environmental problems are
symptomatic of an underlying
problem with corporate
accountability," said Osborn,
co-founder of the Spokane-based
Lands Council.
This
year, Osborn's target is the
Potlatch Corp. [
FULL
ARTICLE
]
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13 May 2002, NEWS ADVISORY
__________________________________________________
POTLATCH: Extravagant
dividends bleed company of
assets
Investor
calls for report, including
Weyerhaeuser family’s
role
SPOKANE__On
Wednesday, May 15, investors of
Potlatch Corp. will decide
whether to prepare a report on
the company’s dividend
policy. Paying high
dividends at a time of historic
losses is at the center of the
debate over Weyerhaeuser family
influence at Potlatch, one of the
Inland Northwest's most powerful
and influential
corporations.
"The
resolution seeks a thorough
analysis of dividend policy, past
and future," said John Osborn, a
conservationist and Potlatch
investor who is proposing the
resolution. "Management has
been paying out high dividends
even while the company has been
suffering some of the worst
losses in its 100-year history,
closing plants, and taking out
new loans." [
FULL
RELEASE
]
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|
4 May 2002, Editorial
__________________________________________________
INVADING THE BOARDROOM
Our View: - Editorial, Post
Register, Idaho Falls,
ID
Here's
an unexpected headline: Boise
Cascade Corp. pledges not to cut
down trees 200 years of age and
older.
Now
here's the story behind it:
Conservationists spent most of
the 20th century using the power
of government to accomplish their
goals. But as the 21st century
opens, they've found a new tool -
private enterprise. [
FULL
EDITORIAL
]
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20 April 2002, News Advisory
__________________________________________________
GREEN SHAREHOLDERS WIN REFORMS
AT WEYERHAEUSER
Investors approve
resolution requiring board
accountability through annual
elections.
FEDERAL
WAY, WASHINGTON Today
investors handed two major
victories to conservationists
working to improve management
accountability. A
shareholder resolution requiring
annual elections for each
director won with 56 percent of
shares voted. The second
resolution, commonly referred to
as "shareholder rights" won with
57 percent of the vote. [
FULL
RELEASE
]
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20 April 2002, News Advisory
__________________________________________________
BOISE CASCADE: Seeds of
Reform Planted
Roadless Controversy
reveals underlying problems with
management
BOISE__Today
Justin Hayes, program director
for the Idaho Conservation
League, will present two
shareholder resolutions intended
to reform management of Boise
Cascade, one of the nation's
largest forest products
companies. The resolutions
ask for reforms in corporate
governance to improve
accountability: requiring
annual elections of directors,
and requiring shareholder
approval for "poison
pills". The resolutions
will be voted on today at the
company's annual shareholder
meeting.
"Enron's
collapse is a wake-up call that
investor oversight is essential,"
said Justin Hayes of the Idaho
Conservation League. "When
directors are accountable for
their actions, they perform
better. Boise's management
has risked the company's good
name and investments by opposing
a hugely popular federal policy
to protect roadless areas in the
federal forests." [
FULL
RELEASE
]
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20 April 2002, News Advisory
__________________________________________________
GREEN INVESTORS WIN
SUPERMAJORITIES AT BOISE
CASCADE
Federal forest policy
stance underscores need for
internal
reforms
BOISE__Today
green investors celebrated major
victories at Boise Cascade only
two days after similar victories
at Weyerhaeuser. By
lopsided margins, investors
handed two more major victories
to conservationists working to
improve management accountability
within the nation’s forest
products companies. At
Boise, a shareholder resolution
requiring annual elections for
each director won with 81 percent
of shares voted. The second
resolution, commonly referred to
as "shareholder rights" won with
72 percent of the
vote.
"These
victories signal to Boise's
management that reform must
come," said Justin Hayes, program
director of the Idaho
Conservation League who presented
the resolutions. "Boise's
management has become dangerously
out of step with the interests of
its stockholders and the public."
[ FULL
RELEASE
]
|
|
April 15 ,2002, News Advisory
__________________________________________________
ENRON LESSONS:
SHAREHOLDERS NEED TO GET
INVOLVED
Green Investors Seek
Management
Accountability
In
the wake of the Enron corporate
collapse, investors associated
with the environmental
shareholder organization, GREEN
CAP, will be offering a series of
reforming resolutions at major
timber and railroad
corporations. The SEC has
approved resolutions for votes at
the annual meetings of the
following
corporations:
April
16 Weyerhaeuser
(presenter: Sam
Mace)
April
17
BNSF
Railroad
(presenter: Bart Naylor
)
April
18 Boise
Cascade
(presenter: Justin
Hayes)
May
7
Plum
Creek
(presenter: Bart
Naylor)
May
7 Georgia
Pacific
(presenter: Bart
Naylor)
May
15 Potlatch
(presenter: John
Osborn)
"Enron
illustrates a failure of
shareholder oversight of
management," said Bart Naylor,
director of GREEN CAP, and former
Chief Investigative Officer of
the Senate Banking
Committee. "Green
shareholders have a critical role
to play in corporate policy--we
know that long-term profitability
is better served through
enlightened environmental
practices." [FULL
RELEASE]
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BOISE
RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
The
purpose of these resolutions is
to improve Board accountability.
I hereby propose the resolutions
as explained in the company's
proxy statement.
Boise
Cascade shareholders require
increased Board accountability
because the current actions of
the Board demonstrate that it is
out of touch with the interests
of stockholders, the general
public and consumers. This
endangers the long-term interests
of the Company and stockholders
alike. [FULL
STATEMENT]
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WEYERHAEUSER
RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING
STATEMENT
Currently,
Weyerhaeuser is composed of three
classes of directors. Only a
third of the board faces election
each year; each individual
director faces election once
every three years. Such
infrequent director elections
reduce the accountability of each
director to shareholders. Many
shareholders have voiced growing
concern about classified
boards.
In
the case of the Weyerhaeuser
board, I am concerned that
insulating management from the
long-term interests of
shareholders has led the Company
to adopt policies that are not in
the best interests of the
company, or the communities in
which the company
operates.
I
have a great deal of firsthand
experience with Weyerhaeuser's
logging practices and lackluster
environmental stewardship. I grew
up near Allegany, OR, a small
logging community inland from
Coos Bay, OR, downstream from
Weyerhaeuser's massive logging
operations on the Millicoma
Forest. The vast majority of this
200,000-acre private forest has
been clearcut logged, much to the
detriment of the health of the
forest, rivers, fish and
wildlife. The bay and rivers have
suffered from massive chemical
pollution and nutrient loading.
Once abundant wild coho salmon
runs are now a fraction of what
they once were.
[FULL
STATEMENT]
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