Intel hit with labor, environmental protests at annual meeting Wednesday; Shareholder proposes board 'Committee on Sustainability'
May 21, 2008
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MT. VIEW, CA. - Intel's Board of Directors - already confronting major environmental and labor issues - will be asked to create a board-level committee on sustainability to demonstrate a more comprehensive commitment to the planet here at Intel's annual meeting Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
Napa-based Harrington Investments Inc.(HII), a socially responsible investment firm, will make the shareholder presentation Wednesday. HII says that its proposal is key to Intel's accountability to a sustained performance for the environment, and that the only body directly accountable to shareholders within public companies is the board of directors.
"This bylaw proposal is an opportunity for Intel to establish leadership in addressing sustainability related issues," said Jack Ucciferri, Research and Advocacy Director of Harrington Investments Inc., which owns approximately 51,000 in shares in Intel.
"Intel is already beginning this journey toward environmental sustainability, but as the protesters outside will demonstrate, Intel still has a long way to go toward understanding the stakeholder needs that end up impacting share value," continued Ucciferri.
Labor leader Mike Garcia, president of SEIU 1887, agreed. "It is short-sighted to separate environmental concerns from the problems that working families face. They are both signs of inadequate board oversight," said Garcia.
Ucciferri and HII maintain that shareholders, whether they are institutions or individuals, have an undeniable pecuniary and existential interest in preserving the integrity of the earth's ecosystems.
"By inserting language directly into the corporate bylaws, this resolution would establish sustainability as an important part of the Board's fiduciary responsibility to shareholders," said Ucciferri. He insists corporate directors have a legal responsibility to act as prudent fiduciaries on behalf of shareholders, and that the sustainability committee will be charged with incorporating sustainability into that duty.
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