I, too support contracting with Ameresco under GSA Energy Conservation on today's agenda. I am grateful that our investment policy supports social and environmental concerns and that “ investments are discouraged in entities that receive a significant portion of their revenues from ADDED 1/23/24 FOSSIL FUELS, the manufacturer of tobacco products, firearms, or weapons not used in our national defense. “ About Agenda item 3n) the investment report shows that some companies such as Bank of America, Caterpillar, and Royal Bank of Canada do not fit the above approved conditions of our count’s investment policy.
All three of these are documented and within the American Friends List of companies that are highly invested in the forced famine occurring in Gaza and the Palestinian OCCUPIED territories of the West Bank. These continual intense bombing campaigns are specifically creating ethnic cleansing and ecocide. Please investigate these and as Anna Marie asks- report back. Thank you.
In the Staff report attached to this agenda item it states " investments in corporate securities and depository institutions will be evaluated for social and environmental concerns." I urge the County to have staff investigate the County's current invests to ascertain if they are in compliance with the County's investment policy and report back.
Here is what I found through an online investigation:
FOSSIL FUELS, the manufacturer of tobacco products, firearms, or weapons not used in our national defense.
Caterpillar weapons not used in national defense On its face the County should immediately divest from Caterpillar. The National Methodist and Presbyterian churches, are two of many examples of entities already completely divested from Caterpillar.
https://investigate.afsc.org/company/caterpillar
"A US-based multinational manufacturer of construction machinery and equipment. Its products are weaponized for the Israeli military and are used in home demolitions; in the construction of illegal settlement infrastructure, border walls, military checkpoints; and in direct military assaults against Palestinians."
June 27,2012 "A U.S. company that provides information on investments has taken Caterpillar off three of its environmentally and socially responsible investment indexes, citing controversy over the Israeli military using its bulldozers in Palestinian territories as one of the reasons.
MSCI Inc. said Caterpillar was downgraded earlier this year because of several concerns, including a January labor dispute in Canada, environmental issues, employee safety and ‘an ongoing controversy associated with use of the company’s equipment in the occupied Palestinian territories.’"
Digging a little deeper I note that the County is invested in several companies who's fund profiles are at odds with the county's investment policy. i.e. specifically to discourage investments in:
May 13 2024" Financial institutions continue to bankroll climate change despite rapid increases in extreme weather events and their impacts. Funds going to fossil fuels delay the low carbon transition – so it seems as if financial institutions are ‘banking on climate chaos.’... Bank of America for example, which ranks third on the 2023 list of worst fossil fuel funders: in addition to being the top financier of Amazon oil & gas companies in this report, they dropped their exclusions on Arctic drilling, thermal coal, and coal-fired power plants; they have neither energy ratio disclosures nor near-term absolute emission targets, and they abandoned the Equator principles. At the time of the report publication, they are the only bank major exhibiting all of these climate policy failures at once." https://www.ran.org/the-understory/complicit-human-rights-and-fossil-fuel-expansion/
Our new report, Complicit: Bank of America’s Role in Fossil Fuel Expansion and the Violation of Human Rights, explores how badly Bank of America is failing on human rights by failing on their climate commitments. By financing fossil fuel expansion at scale in a time of climate crisis, this bank, and many others, have made themselves complicit, by definition, in the violation of human rights of millions today, and many more in years to come.
"Next on our list of top US banks funding global warming, we discuss Bank of America (BofA) – the second largest US bank and fourth on the list of top fossil fuel financiers in the world. While BofA isn’t the top offender when it comes to fossil fuel funding (that honor belongs to JPMorgan Chase), it has contributed significantly to the $5.5 trillion in funding that big banks have provided to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2016"
Bank of America is also invested in Elbit -weapons $500,000,000 of investments in Israeli Defense Contractor Elbit. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/israeli-defence-company-elbit-q1-profit-revenue-rise-gaza-war-demand-2024-05-28/
"Elbit, one of Israel's largest defense contractors, supplies products ranging from drones to training simulators, artillery fire control systems and surveillance equipment and has seen orders surge amid a rise in defense spending worldwide...Although Elbit has benefited from strong demand due to global insecurity, its shares have been under pressure on investor concerns over the war in Gaza and a wave of global protests aimed at pressuring big institutions to cut investments in Israel."
Royal Bank of Canada fossil fuels and weapons https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/royal-bank-oil-and-gas-1.6809011 "A report from a coalition of environmental groups shows that Royal Bank of Canada was the biggest fossil fuel financier in the world last year after providing over $42 billion US in funding."
RBC holds USD $57.7 million in Palantir Technologies Inc. weapons Just Peace Advocates has noted: “As of November 2021, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has 2,403,812 shares of Palantir Technologies Inc Class A (US:PLTR) with total holdings valued at $57,787,000 USD. The RBC holdings in Palantir have been steadily increasing quarter over quarter.”
They add: “Palantir provides Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive system to Israeli security forces, to identify people in occupied Palestine.”Earlier this month, Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp stated: “We are on the front lines fighting what amounts to evil.”
Charles Schwab Fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco I see from the County's portfolios for 2023 they were invested in Charles Schwab, which controls nearly $50,000,000,000 of stock in Lockheed Martin and whose overall portfolio is majority invested in corporations such as Philip Morris and Conoco Philips which are in violation of county divestment policy.
Lockheed Martin manufactures weapons
https://afsc.org/divest " Weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin literally makes a killing off of killing. Last year, while the company was grossing $43.4 billion in arms sales, an estimated 157,000 people around the globe were killed in violent conflicts. Lockheed Martin boasts on its website that it has been selling arms to Israel since 1971. The company’s notorious F-16 fighter jet came into Israel’s possession in 1980, two years before Israel’s first war with Lebanon. Since that time, the company’s fighter jets have been integral to Israel’s brutal military campaigns in Lebanon and Palestine." https://mondoweiss.net/2017/11/lockheed-supporting-israeli/
“When considering companies to target for their entanglement in Israel’s human rights violations, Lockheed Martin should make the top of everyone’s lists…as the largest weapons manufacturer in the world,”
I, too support contracting with Ameresco under GSA Energy Conservation on today's agenda. I am grateful that our investment policy supports social and environmental concerns and that “ investments are discouraged in entities that receive a significant portion of their revenues from ADDED 1/23/24 FOSSIL FUELS, the manufacturer of tobacco products, firearms, or weapons not used in our national defense. “ About Agenda item 3n) the investment report shows that some companies such as Bank of America, Caterpillar, and Royal Bank of Canada do not fit the above approved conditions of our count’s investment policy.
All three of these are documented and within the American Friends List of companies that are highly invested in the forced famine occurring in Gaza and the Palestinian OCCUPIED territories of the West Bank. These continual intense bombing campaigns are specifically creating ethnic cleansing and ecocide. Please investigate these and as Anna Marie asks- report back. Thank you.
Dear Board of Supervisors
In the Staff report attached to this agenda item it states " investments in corporate securities and depository institutions will be evaluated for social and environmental concerns." I urge the County to have staff investigate the County's current invests to ascertain if they are in compliance with the County's investment policy and report back.
Here is what I found through an online investigation:
FOSSIL FUELS, the manufacturer of tobacco products, firearms, or weapons not used in our national defense.
Caterpillar weapons not used in national defense On its face the County should immediately divest from Caterpillar. The National Methodist and Presbyterian churches, are two of many examples of entities already completely divested from Caterpillar.
https://investigate.afsc.org/company/caterpillar
"A US-based multinational manufacturer of construction machinery and equipment. Its products are weaponized for the Israeli military and are used in home demolitions; in the construction of illegal settlement infrastructure, border walls, military checkpoints; and in direct military assaults against Palestinians."
https:/www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/world-now/story/2012-06-27/caterpillar-cut-from-investment-lists-israeli-role-cited
June 27,2012 "A U.S. company that provides information on investments has taken Caterpillar off three of its environmentally and socially responsible investment indexes, citing controversy over the Israeli military using its bulldozers in Palestinian territories as one of the reasons.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/caterpillar-pulled-from-social-indexes
MSCI Inc. said Caterpillar was downgraded earlier this year because of several concerns, including a January labor dispute in Canada, environmental issues, employee safety and ‘an ongoing controversy associated with use of the company’s equipment in the occupied Palestinian territories.’"
Digging a little deeper I note that the County is invested in several companies who's fund profiles are at odds with the county's investment policy. i.e. specifically to discourage investments in:
Bank of America Fossil fuels -weapons
https://www.forbes.com/sites/feliciajackson/2024/05/13/banks-back-fossil-fuels-with-71-trillion/?sh=4a71728a7c75
May 13 2024" Financial institutions continue to bankroll climate change despite rapid increases in extreme weather events and their impacts. Funds going to fossil fuels delay the low carbon transition – so it seems as if financial institutions are ‘banking on climate chaos.’... Bank of America for example, which ranks third on the 2023 list of worst fossil fuel funders: in addition to being the top financier of Amazon oil & gas companies in this report, they dropped their exclusions on Arctic drilling, thermal coal, and coal-fired power plants; they have neither energy ratio disclosures nor near-term absolute emission targets, and they abandoned the Equator principles. At the time of the report publication, they are the only bank major exhibiting all of these climate policy failures at once." https://www.ran.org/the-understory/complicit-human-rights-and-fossil-fuel-expansion/
Our new report, Complicit: Bank of America’s Role in Fossil Fuel Expansion and the Violation of Human Rights, explores how badly Bank of America is failing on human rights by failing on their climate commitments. By financing fossil fuel expansion at scale in a time of climate crisis, this bank, and many others, have made themselves complicit, by definition, in the violation of human rights of millions today, and many more in years to come.
https://greenportfolio.com/blog/top-fossil-fuel-financier-bank-of-america/
"Next on our list of top US banks funding global warming, we discuss Bank of America (BofA) – the second largest US bank and fourth on the list of top fossil fuel financiers in the world. While BofA isn’t the top offender when it comes to fossil fuel funding (that honor belongs to JPMorgan Chase), it has contributed significantly to the $5.5 trillion in funding that big banks have provided to the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2016"
Bank of America is also invested in Elbit -weapons $500,000,000 of investments in Israeli Defense Contractor Elbit. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/israeli-defence-company-elbit-q1-profit-revenue-rise-gaza-war-demand-2024-05-28/
"Elbit, one of Israel's largest defense contractors, supplies products ranging from drones to training simulators, artillery fire control systems and surveillance equipment and has seen orders surge amid a rise in defense spending worldwide...Although Elbit has benefited from strong demand due to global insecurity, its shares have been under pressure on investor concerns over the war in Gaza and a wave of global protests aimed at pressuring big institutions to cut investments in Israel."
Royal Bank of Canada fossil fuels and weapons https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/royal-bank-oil-and-gas-1.6809011 "A report from a coalition of environmental groups shows that Royal Bank of Canada was the biggest fossil fuel financier in the world last year after providing over $42 billion US in funding."
RBC holds USD $57.7 million in Palantir Technologies Inc. weapons Just Peace Advocates has noted: “As of November 2021, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has 2,403,812 shares of Palantir Technologies Inc Class A (US:PLTR) with total holdings valued at $57,787,000 USD. The RBC holdings in Palantir have been steadily increasing quarter over quarter.”
They add: “Palantir provides Artificial Intelligence (AI) predictive system to Israeli security forces, to identify people in occupied Palestine.”Earlier this month, Palantir Chief Executive Officer Alex Karp stated: “We are on the front lines fighting what amounts to evil.”
Charles Schwab Fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco I see from the County's portfolios for 2023 they were invested in Charles Schwab, which controls nearly $50,000,000,000 of stock in Lockheed Martin and whose overall portfolio is majority invested in corporations such as Philip Morris and Conoco Philips which are in violation of county divestment policy.
Lockheed Martin manufactures weapons
https://afsc.org/divest " Weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin literally makes a killing off of killing. Last year, while the company was grossing $43.4 billion in arms sales, an estimated 157,000 people around the globe were killed in violent conflicts. Lockheed Martin boasts on its website that it has been selling arms to Israel since 1971. The company’s notorious F-16 fighter jet came into Israel’s possession in 1980, two years before Israel’s first war with Lebanon. Since that time, the company’s fighter jets have been integral to Israel’s brutal military campaigns in Lebanon and Palestine." https://mondoweiss.net/2017/11/lockheed-supporting-israeli/
“When considering companies to target for their entanglement in Israel’s human rights violations, Lockheed Martin should make the top of everyone’s lists…as the largest weapons manufacturer in the world,”
Anna Marie Stenberg