At Zevin Asset Management, we view our fiduciary duty to our clients as inseparable from our responsibilities as global citizens. Through this quarter’s update we hope to give our readers a window into how we continue to contribute to shaping a more sustainable and just economy while stewarding clients’ capital responsibly. 

From Parking Lots to Police Databases: Home Depot’s Data Privacy Dilemma 

Home Depot stores are an informal hub for day laborers and this summer became the sites of multiple ICE raids, putting workers and customers in danger. Home Depot’s partnership with Flock Safety, a private surveillance company whose automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras track vehicles and feed data into massive police databases have fueled these raids. 

Zevin Asset Management continues to be an active voice in corporate engagement and in joining public statements of solidarity with human rights groups and other stakeholders. At this moment in history, it is critical that we persist in raising issues directly with corporate executives and boards of directors.

We stepped up to voice the concerns of human rights advocates, employees, and investors at Alphabet’s annual shareholder meeting, focusing on the risks of AI use in conflict zones. We are also shedding light on contracted data workers as we engage in dialogue with Microsoft and Accenture. Additionally, we wrote to Apple to raise investor concerns about recent attacks on shareholder rights by the Business Roundtable (BRT), where Apple is a prominent member, and urged the company to clarify its position and speak out against the BRT’s recommendations. We also joined several statements in solidarity with those standing up for working women and marginalized groups.

In an era where shareholder rights are increasingly under threat, Zevin Asset Management remains steadfast in advocating for corporate environmental, social, and governance practices that safeguard long-term shareholder value. We resist the criminalization of advocacy and coalition-building to suppress dissent, silence opposition, and entrench power. Diversity is not illegal. Protecting civil rights is not illegal. Coalition-building is not illegal.

The misleading narratives we encounter today echo the “Newspeak” of George Orwell’s 1984—language crafted to “narrow the scope of thought.” These narratives seek to distort perceptions of equity and inclusion and obscure their purpose. Even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for example, an agency long tasked with ensuring fair hiring practices and workplace protections, now frames their dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives as a protective measure for workers, using convoluted reasoning to justify the erosion of diversity policies and falsely equating inclusion efforts with segregation or reverse discrimination.

This proxy season we continued our active ownership while also preparing for a more politically charged environment towards social and environmental equity and justice.

As federal agencies’ enforcement abilities are undermined, civil society and market players should be engaged more than ever. Despite the legal challenges and imminent threat from the new administration to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its national ban of noncompetes, we filed an amicus brief with New York City’s Comptroller and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), to register our investor view for keeping the ban to enable wage growth and job mobility. Currently, only a few states have banned noncompetes.

This quarter, Zevin Asset Management continued to share our perspective on racial equity investing, filed our first resolution of the season, and sent letters to pharmaceutical companies and their trade associations to advance health equity. In other news, we continue to defend corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives against political headwinds and have joined global efforts to protect our fragile biodiversity.