Pursuing Shareholder Advocacy and Corporate Accountability

An important part of the strategy of the Environmental Justice Program is to hold corporate elites accountable for water injustices. Working together with NorthStar Asset Management, UUSC has made important advances in pressuring private water utilities and beverage and electronics companies to address the human right to water in their operations.

In 2008, UUSC partnered with NorthStar to file a shareholder resolution with PepsiCo, asking the beverage giant to adopt a human-right-to-water policy in its domestic and overseas operations. Although PepsiCo challenged the resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UUSC and NorthStar's resolution prevailed, earning 7 percent of the vote at the May 2008 PepsiCo Annual Shareholders' Meeting. In 2009, NorthStar, with technical assistance from UUSC, negotiated with PepsiCo a groundbreaking policy that implements the human right to water, as defined by the United Nations.

NorthStar has also taken on the electronics industry, presenting an INTEL shareholder resolution to adopt a human-right-to-water policy. Intel challenged the resolution with the SEC, and failed. The resolution will be voted on in the spring of 2009. The electronics industry has a tremendous impact on water resources - both by overextracting and polluting water resources in the countries in which they operate, affecting whole communities.