Tell Procter & Gamble shareholders to end forest destruction!

Indonesia’s rainforests are the oldest forests on Earth. They’re home to millions of people who depend on them for their cultures and livelihoods. And they provide habitat to orangutans and Sumatran rhinos.

But Head & Shoulders shampoo and its manufacturer Procter & Gamble are helping drive orangutans and Sumatran rhinos to the brink of extinction. When these forests are slashed to grow palm oil for use in shampoo and other products, they take millennia to recover. The wildlife lost may never return.

Comments

Dear State Street,

In 2020, your firm was among the two-thirds of Procter & Gamble’s shareholders that voted to urge the company to eliminate deforestation and intact forest degradation from its supply chains. Undoubtedly you expected real action. You’ve heard from P&G that it has unveiled an updated sustainability plan. I am writing to you today to let you know that P&G’s plan is short on action.

Given P&G’s lack of adequate action, I hope you will continue your engagement with P&G on these issues. But, at P&G’s 2021 Annual General Meeting on October 12, there’s a very specific action you can take: cast your vote against Angela Braly, the chair of P&G’s Governance and Public Responsibility committee.

State Street has committed to making deforestation a priority and to use its voting power to make real progress in addressing the climate crisis. Procter & Gamble needs a big push, because despite last year’s shareholder vote, the company’s leadership is failing to take real action.

The company has made some small changes to mitigate its harmful impacts, but its reforms have been cosmetic at best, and the destruction continues. In its supply chains from Indonesia to Canada, P&G’s operations continue to drive environmental destruction, land grabbing, and human rights violations. The company’s suppliers remain embroiled in protracted land conflicts with local communities, while P&G refuses to hear -- let alone address -- grievances. Up to now, P&G’s response has been managed by sustainability staff and its massive PR machine -- while P&G’s C-Suite Executives have ignored the problems. This is why P&G director Angela Braly, chair of P&G’s Governance and Public Responsibility committee has to go.

Angela Braly has chaired P&G’s Governance and Public Responsibility committee since 2009. She is responsible for guiding the board’s recommendations on social responsibility issues, including human rights and sustainability. Braly is also the chairperson of ExxonMobil’s Social Responsibility committee, garnering huge profits from a corporation whose viability is based on furthering the climate crisis. Given her utter failure to address P&G’s human rights and environmental violations, Angela Braly needs to be voted off P&G’s board.

As you have heard before, consumers like myself want to see P&G establish and enforce mandatory requirements to ensure deforestation and degradation-free sourcing of palm oil across the humid tropics and paper from the Canadian boreal. Given the urgency of addressing the dual climate and biodiversity crises, it’s essential that P&G make substantive commitments to reduce its impact on forests -- both for the communities and species that rely on these ecosystems, as well as to address the associated risks posed to P&G’s shareholders’ investments.

That’s why I urge you to cast your vote against Angela Braly at P&G’s upcoming shareholder meeting.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
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