As You Sow is the nation’s non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy, founded in 1992 to harness shareholder power to create lasting change and align investments with values. As You Sow’s mission is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies, with a vision of a safe, just, and sustainable world in which protecting the environment and human rights is central to corporate decision making. Recognizing that corporations are responsible for most of the pressing social and environmental problems we face today, As You Sow believes corporations must be willing part of the solutions. As shareholder advocates, As You Sow directly engages corporate CEOs, senior management, and institutional investors to change corporations from the inside out, recognizing shareholders as a powerful force for creating positive, lasting change in corporate behavior. When corporations focus on the short term and ignore the wider impact of their policies and actions, they create risk for their customers, employees, shareholders, and themselves. As You Sow presses corporations to understand this broader risk, working directly with corporate executives to collaboratively develop business policies and practices that reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and increase the bottom line while bringing positive environmental and social change. Since 1992, As You Sow has been raising the shareholder voice to increase corporate responsibility on environmental issues such as waste reduction and management, as well as social issues including racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
Why it matters: As You Sow demonstrates that shareholders have power to change corporate behavior from the inside out by directly engaging CEOs and senior management rather than relying solely on external regulation or consumer pressure, making corporations part of solutions to the problems they create. By pressing corporations to understand that focusing on short-term gains while ignoring wider policy impacts creates risk for customers, employees, shareholders, and the companies themselves, As You Sow shows that environmental and social corporate responsibility is not just ethical but essential for reducing risk and long-term success. The organization’s collaborative approach working directly with executives to develop policies that reduce risk, benefit brand reputation, and increase the bottom line while bringing positive change proves that shareholder advocacy can align profit with environmental protection and human rights, transforming corporate decision making through the power investors already hold.
