Sister action: the almighty dollar meets its match in a Dominican nun - Profile - Interview

Sierra, May-June, 2003 by Marilyn Berlin Snell

A recent nationwide poll found that 72 percent of Americans feel that big business is doing a "bad job keeping the environment clean." But with environmental regulations being bulldozed by the courts as well as the Bush administration, what's to keep corporations from spewing more pollution than ever? One impediment comes with a serious Queens accent and, on occasion, a nun's habit.

Sister Patricia Daly wants to make good corporate citizens out of behemoths like Exxon Mobil, General Electric, and Ford. She works in the belly of the beast, purchasing stock in companies and then introducing shareholder resolutions that demand corporate reform from within. It doesn't hurt her cause that she packs a massive portfolio: The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which she represents, has 275 faith-based institutional investors with combined holdings worth an estimated $90 billion.

The move toward "socially responsible investing" in the United States started in the 1960s, as people began to shun companies like Dow Chemical that were profiting from the manufacture of napalm for the Vietnam War. Some investors sold off their "sin stocks," while others used annual shareholder meetings to submit resolutions that called on these companies to stop what they saw as immoral business practices. The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility was founded during this era. One of its domestic efforts was against the textile manufacturer J. P. Stevens, a flagrant labor-rights violator in the South made infamous by the 1979 film Norma Rae.

Always concerned with issues of justice and peace, as a teen Sister Patricia felt called to the Order of the Sisters of Saint Dominic. A 13th-century Spanish contemporary of Saint Francis of Assisi, Dominic believed in utter simplicity and "speaking truth to the powerful," she says. In 1975, Sister Patricia attended her first-ever shareholder meeting as a representative of her Caldwell, New Jersey, congregation. At the J. P. Stevens meeting, she witnessed the ICCR in action--talking to shareholders, introducing resolutions--and decided to join the group.

Now the executive director of the Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investing (the largest regional member of the ICCR, representing New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), Sister Patricia travels the country, holding private discussions with corporate executives, attending shareholder meetings, and introducing resolutions on a variety of labor and environmental issues, such as global warming, genetically modified foods, child labor, and sweatshops.

On the January day I spoke with this 46-year-old spiritual and fiscal force for nature, Sister Patricia was fielding press calls about a slew of recently filed resolutions on global warming. The ICCR has targeted five U.S. utilities as the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide in their business: American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio; Southern Company of Atlanta; Cinergy Corporation of Cincinnati; Xcel Energy of Minneapolis; and TXU Corporation of Dallas.

The resolutions aimed at the "filthy five" note, in part, that electricity generation is responsible for 40 percent of manmade carbon dioxide emissions. They end by asking investors to agree, among other things, that "the board of directors report to shareholders on the greenhouse-gas emissions from our company's operations, including steps the company can take to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases substantially ... and plans, if any, to support energy-efficient appliance standards and strong energy codes for residential and commercial buildings at the state and federal levels." Shareholders will vote on the resolutions at annual meetings this spring.

Even if Sister Patricia doesn't win a majority, she'll make her mark. Over the years, her efforts have forced corporations to address many environmental and labor concerns. She's stood her ground against some of the biggest egos in business, executives who have learned the hard way that it's best not to ignore Sister Patricia's calls for accountability.

Sierra: What gets the attention of corporations? The moral argument, the environmental argument, or the fact that you represent institutions with $90 billion in investment assets?

Daly: It's probably a combination. We have some simple strategies for getting our point across. Very often, people come to us voicing concern about a particular problem. We look into it and then bring the issue to the members of the ICCR and at that point decide whether it's something we should act on. If so, we make inquiries of the company. Sometimes we ask where they stand on the issue; sometimes we simply ask for information; sometimes we ask to meet with them directly. Then, if warranted, we file a shareholder resolution.

In many cases, however, we meet with the company and if it agrees to make a policy change or to begin the ball rolling to address the problem, we agree to hold off on a resolution, or to withdraw one we've proposed.

Sierra: A few months prior to filing global-warming resolutions with the "filthy five" utilities, you also filed resolutions with two of the Big Three: General Motors and Ford. What were you trying to accomplish?