NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017
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NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017 Company Overview ESG Issues Dialogue Results Holdings CONSUMER We wrote to Amazon in December 2017 in the context of our participation in a PRI investor collaboration engaging Amazon.com Inc is an companies on cybersecurity, for which we co-lead engagement NEI Ethical Global American electronic with Amazon on its cybersecurity governance and strategy Equity Fund commerce company and • Governance Matters - with Calvert Research and Management. The letter introduced Amazon one of the largest internet cybersecurity the investor collaboration and requested a meeting with the retailers in the world. company to discuss how the board of directors is involved in NEI Northwest www.amazon.com cybersecurity oversight, whether the company conducts Global Equity Fund regular cybersecurity audits and whether Amazon employees at all levels of the organisation receive cybersecurity training. We wrote to Aritzia in December 2017 to explain our proxy Aritzia is a Canadian voting decisions at the company's 2017 Annual General Meeting. We encouraged the company to address corporate women's fashion apparel • Governance Matters - governance issues such as executive compensation structures, NEI Ethical Special Aritzia and accessories retail executive compensation, say-on-pay, and composition of key board committees. In light company. board composition Equity Fund of the company's dual class share structure, we gave our www.aritzia.com perspective on the importance of including independent and diverse directors on the board. In the context of an investor collaboration we convened to Canadian Tire Corporation engage with Canadian Tire, we met with the company in NEI Ethical is a general retailer offering October 2017 to provide feedback on its 2017 sustainability Balanced Fund everyday products and disclosures, including expectations for responsible sourcing • Governance matters - Canadian Tire services through more than and carbon disclosure. The company provided updates on its enhancing ESG disclosure 1,700 retail and gasoline plans for future reporting and efforts around supply chain due NEI Ethical outlets across Canada. diligence. We were encouraged by Canadian Tire's interest in Canadian Equity www.canadiantire.ca future collaborative opportunities and recommendations from Fund the investor group. NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017 General Motors an In November 2017 we were part of an investor coalition that American multinational • Energy transition - wrote to General Motors to encourage the company to assess NEI Global Value General Motors corporation manufacturing climate strategy, GHG its strategy to respond to a low-carbon future, and to report to vehicles based in Detroit. emissions & public policy investors on how it will be resilient in a scenario of action to Fund www.gm.com keep global warming under 2°C. In November 2017 we met with LKQ Corporation, in LKQ Corporation is an collaboration with our partners in the Environmental Leaders American auto parts strategy, to understand how the company manages its ESG LKQ company that provides • Governance matters - risks, and to provide our perspective on how it could improve NEI Environmental Corporation wholesale used and enhancing ESG disclosure disclosure on these issues. LKQ Corporation indicated that it Leaders Fund refurbished auto parts. welcomed our input and had plans to improve its ESG www.lqkcorp.com disclosure in 2018, and asked for continued input as the company works on identifying its material issues. Loblaw Companies Limited In November 2017, we wrote to Loblaw to provide feedback on is Canada's largest food • Responsibility to respect its most recently published CSR report. We were encouraged to NEI Ethical retailer and a leading human rights - supply chain see that the company had increased disclosure with respect to Balanced Fund provider of drugstore, due diligence and audit practices in its supply chain, which we Loblaw general merchandise and had requested in previous dialogue, and that it had included financial products and • Farm to fork - access to metrics and goals to increase farm animal welfare. In NEI Ethical services. nutrition, food waste & December 2017, Loblaw acknowledged its role in past bread Canadian Equity animal welfare price-fixing, and announced compliance measures that had Fund www.loblaw.ca been put in place to prevent a recurrence. NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017 In October 2017, Nestle published a report on how it plans to tackle child labour in its cocoa supply chain and rolled out the Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS), Nestlé is a global nutrition responding to investor requests to eradicate child labour from and health company, NEI Ethical • Responsibility to respect cocoa supply chains. Nestle headquartered in International Equity Switzerland. human rights - supply chain Fund In December 2017, we were part of an investor collaboration www.nestle.com that wrote to Nestle Waters regarding community relations in its North American bottling operations and the social risk of water. NEI Ethical US Equity Fund • Farm to fork - access to nutrition In December 2017, we participated in an ICCR collaborative investor dialogue with PepsiCo. We discussed company NEI Ethical Global PepsiCo is an American initiatives and strategy on access to nutrition, sustainable Equity Fund multinational food, snack • Governance matters - agriculture, responsible sourcing, and water and wastewater PepsiCo and beverage corporation. policy lobbying management. The company remained open to dialogue and advancing sustainability initiatives. PepsiCo published an NEI Northwest US www.pepsico.com updated Human Rights Policy to reflect the salient features of Dividend Fund • Energy transition - the UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework, which had climate strategy, GHG been a request of the investor collaboration. emissions & public policy NEI Northwest Tactical Yield Fund NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017 ENERGY NEI Northwest In November 2017 we wrote to the board of Bonterra Energy to Growth & Income explain how the company's governance practices impacted our Fund proxy voting decisions. Specifically, we noted that absent a Bonterra Energy is an oil robust board diversity policy or commitments to enhance board and gas company diversity, we would vote against members of the Policy, NEI Northwest Bonterra • Governance matters - headquartered in Calgary, Governance & Nomination Committee at the 2018 AGM. We Canadian Equity Energy Alberta, Canada. board diversity subsequently met with Bonterra to discuss the company's Fund www.bonterraenergy.com efforts to enhance diversity. The company indicated that it had been making efforts to diversify its board candidates, and would consider our request to enhance its diversity policy and NEI Northwest commit to increasing diversity at its next board meeting. Specialty Equity Fund We met with Cenovus in December 2017 to discuss progress in meeting the company's commitment to provide a report to Cenovus Energy is a investors on its strategic resilience to a low-carbon future. We Calgary-based integrated provided our perspective on relevant developments in the field • Energy transition - NEI Northwest oil & gas company with a of scenario analysis reporting and shared a document on best Cenovus climate strategy, GHG Canadian Dividend focus on in-situ oilsands practices in this area that we helped create alongside other emissions & public policy operations in Alberta. leading investors. We also answered questions from the Fund www.cenovus.com company on aspects of the report that we thought were most pertinent. The company indicated that it would be publishing its report prior to the 2018 AGM. NEI Corporate Engagement Focus List Q4 Update: December 2017 NEI Northwest Global Equity Fund Chevron Energy is one of In December 2017 we co-filed a shareholder proposal with the world’s largest Chevron asking the company to separate the chair and CEO integrated oil & gas positions. Our rationale for this request included concern that NEI Northwest U.S. Chevron • Governance matters companies, headquartered the board lacked independent oversight to manage several Dividend Fund in California, U.S. material ESG risks, ranging from human rights impacts in Ecuador to its climate change strategy. www.chevron.com NEI Northwest Tactical Yield Fund In December 2017 we met with Enbridge to discuss best NEI Ethical practices in low-carbon resiliency reporting and to encourage Balanced Fund Enbridge is an energy the company to consider undertaking scenario analysis relating infrastructure company • Energy transition - to action to keep global warming under 2°C, in line with the based in Alberta, Canada. It climate strategy, GHG recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related NEI Ethical focuses on the emissions & public policy Financial Disclosures. We also provided the company with a Canadian Equity Enbridge transportation, distribution document on best practices in scenario analysis that we helped Fund and generation of energy, create in conjunction with other investors. The company primarily in North America. • Aboriginal engagement strategy agreed to continue the conversation and noted that the merger NEI Northwest www.enbridge.com with Spectra was still a focus internally. We also discussed the company's progress on developing its Aboriginal Engagement Canadian Dividend report. Fund In