This past Tuesday, Strive Asset Management unveiled its new plan to mitigate the risks shown to the shareholders of Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Hope Depot by the insane environmental, social, and governance movement which has become known as ESG.
Their series of steps will be carried out over the course of the next year in an effort to stop companies from “prioritizing ESG over excellence,” as explained via a press release from Strive, which stands by its belief that its “greatest opportunity to influence positive outcomes for shareholders” via resolutions exists at the group of companies.
Vivek Ramaswamy, the Executive Chairman of Strive, put out a letter addressed to Darren Woods, the CEO of Exxon Mobil, this past month to issue the suggestion for an addition of a “suitable director to your board ahead of preparations for next spring’s proxy voting season.” In the wake of a meeting between Woods and Ramaswamy, ExxonMobil set up a pair of new board directors; Strive will now stand in support of the nomination of a third director to “boost diversity of thought in its boardroom surrounding the ‘energy transition’ debate,” as explained via a press release.
Exxon put forth a shareholder resolution back in January which is committed to the oil company to push for net zero emissions by as soon as the year 2050. Just past year, a tiny ESG activist investment firm that had control over 0.02% of the stock in ExxonMobil was able to win a trio of board seats with the assistance of various asset management groups coming from Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street.
“While climate change is one of many factors that may influence decision-making at Exxon, we are concerned that singularly focusing on this risk factor at the expense of other considerations creates new long-run risks,” Ramaswamy stated to Woods, “including the very real risk of underinvesting in fossil fuels to match global demand.”
When considering Chevron, Strive is slated to bring up a proposal that would seek to reverse course on Scope 3 emissions reduction benchmarks set up last year by utilizing shareholder resolution. The benchmarks, which sported the support of BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, would force the company to drop fossil fuel usage throughout entities in the Chevron value chain.
Additionally, Strive was a co-author of a shareholder resolution for Home Depot that would seek to go back on a previous proposal that sported the support of Capital Group and BlackRock in order to carry out a “racial equity audit.” Strive states that all hiring at the home improvement retailer “should be based exclusively on merit, without regard to social considerations which may raise legal liabilities for the company.”
The fund is expected to kick off a number of additional shareholder resolutions or proxy campaigns throughout the spring if the latter two proposals do not push “positive change.”
