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The Black Lives Matter movement is finally gaining traction, though it was too late for just a few of these citizens we’d like to mention.

Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. 

As the list of black men and women murdered by police and racist vigilantes grows, the call for racial equity and a fair criminal justice system becomes louder. 

Recent corporate declarations of standing with Black Lives Matter are encouraging, but such statements have little impact if they’re not backed up by effective, sustained advocacy calling for a fair and equitable justice system. One interesting trend we’ve seen that it’s often the smaller companies with far more at stake that have been far more vocal.

The stubborn fact is that the business community can do much better.

Join TriplePundit senior editor Mary Mazzoni on Wednesday, August 5 at 12 p.m. ET for a live conversation with the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) and its partners on what businesses can do to keep the spotlight and momentum on criminal justice issues. 

Register here.

Our live panel will also discuss how companies can help end police brutality and systemic racism, target their support to create real, tangible impact and use their influence to advance racial equity.

3p's parent company, 3BL Media, launched the “Learn From Home” series as the U.S. workforce went into self-isolation in March. Leveraging the expertise of 3p, which we’re proud to say has been covering sustainable business since 2005, the series focuses on bold and authentic corporate leadership.

Panelists for “Beyond Statements: How to Use Your Voice for Change” include:

Moderated by Mary Mazzoni, Senior Editor, TriplePundit
Celia Ouellette, Chief Executive Officer, RBIJ
Ashish Prashar, Global Communications Director, Publicis Sapient
Jeff Korzenik, Chief Investment Strategist, Fifth Third Bank
Conroy Boxhill, Managing Director, Porter Novelli-Atlanta

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Ohio-based fabric and crafts retailer Jo-Ann Stores has been quietly building its own social responsibility profile over the past few years. Now it appears that the COVID-19 crisis has sparked a new wave of activism for the company as it takes on anti-maskers.

Earlier this month, Jo-Ann joined a wave of major U.S. retailers requesting all customers wear masks regardless of state guidelines. Last week, Jo-Ann’s president and CEO, Wade Miquelon, upped the ante by stating that the company is willing to lose customers over its stand on public health.

A fabric store shames anti-maskers

Jo-Ann announced its new mask policy on July 23 in an open letter to customers from Miquelon. The wording of the letter is interesting, in that Miquelon begins by underscoring the need for individual protection and ends with a ringing call for national action.

“We have required facemasks for store Team Members to protect our customers, and we want to extend that protection to all who are in our stores,” Miquelon begins.

“As such, beginning Monday, July 27, we respectfully encourage all customers – regardless of local mask mandates — to wear a facemask or covering whenever you are in a Jo-Ann store,” he continues in bold face.

Though the “respectfully encourage” language is mild enough, the letter concludes with a not-so-subtle dig at anyone who may walk into a Jo-Ann store without a mask.

“Thank you for all you are doing to help protect the nation by making and wearing masks in public, and for inspiring others through your creativity and generosity,” Miquelon writes.

With 850 stores in 49 states, that appeal to patriotism and national action will reach a wide audience — as will the message that anti-maskers are not helping to protect their communities. In addition, to individual shoppers, this message reaches many small business owners who purchase supplies from Jo-Ann, and it may ripple out to have an impact on their customers as well.

Jo-Ann is willing to lose customers over masks

Miquelon personally doubled down on the mask issue in an interview with CNN on Saturday, in which he stated that Jo-Ann was prepared to lose customers due to its new mask policy. Previously, the company only required masks in stores where state guidelines required them.

"This is the right thing to do," Miquelon said. "So, for the very few minority [of people] that don't want to comply, I think those are probably customers that we're willing to lose just because of the situation that we're in.”

Miquelon also underscored how retail employees have been put at risk by the absence of a strong national policy on masks — and sent a pointed message to anti-maskers as well. “I just don't want to see an employee get hurt,” he said. “Our people didn't sign up for that. They're just trying to be a good citizen and earn a living.”

The quiet before the social responsibility storm

While Jo-Ann was not the first major retailer to require wearing a mask, Miquelon has propelled the company front and center on the mask issue. Combined with the letter, Miquelon’s personal statement positions Jo-Ann and its loyal customers on the moral high ground, in stark contrast to members of the public — and elected officials — who downplay the effectiveness of masks.

Jo-Ann’s moral stance, along with its vocal calling out of anti-maskers, together make social outliers of individuals who react emotionally and violently when asked to wear a mask.

All of this may seem like a bolt out of the blue for a homey arts-and-crafts retailer. However, a hint of social activism appears in the company’s vision of being “the inspirational leader that helps everyone find their Happy Place.”

Before anti-maskers made headlines, Jo-Ann took the lead fighting COVID-19

That vision took concrete form early in the COVID-19 outbreak. On March 20, Jo-Ann announced that its in-store classrooms were open free of charge, with COVID prevention precautions, to customers for making and donating masks and other protective gear to frontline health workers.

“Participating locations will offer sewing machines, materials and guidance to help customers safely make facemasks and covers, gowns and other items to donate to America’s hospitals,” the company stated. “Jo-Ann will provide and donate 100% of the supplies needed for these projects for those who come in to make.”

Additionally, Jo-Ann offered its stores as collection points for sewers making masks and other items at home. The company also offered to help hospitals secure supplies of fabric and other materials they may need, partnering with Neiman Marcus and David’s Bridal in the effort.

The company followed up on June 24 with a campaign that enlists customers in a nationwide “Masks for Schools” effort ahead of the re-opening of schools this fall. The mask donations will go to underserved students through Jo-Ann’s longtime partnership on school supplies with the Kids In Need Foundation.

What’s next for Jo-Ann?

While Jo-Ann and other retailers have not directly confronted the Donald Trump administration in so many words, their actions in support of masks stand as a strong rebuke to an administration that has routinely rejected science in its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, as it has in other areas.

In that regard, two of Jo-Ann’s other recent actions appear to support a science-based approach to social responsibility, as well as youth empowerment through learning.

In 2018, the company formed a collaboration with the National 4-H Council on a hands-on learning initiative. The 4-H program is the largest youth development organization in the U.S., and it is rooted in a century-old U.S. Department of Agriculture initiative aimed at sharing science-based knowledge with the public.

The collaboration builds on a rewards card donation program benefiting 4-H, which Jo-Ann launched in 2017. The store also carries a line of 4-H themed patterns among its fabrics.

In 2017, the company also formed a similar partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA. “GSUSA offers girls the opportunity to develop leadership skills through programming focused on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); the outdoors; life skills; and entrepreneurship,” Jo-Ann noted in a press statement announcing the new collaboration.

Now that Jo-Ann has come down firmly on the side of science on COVID-19 response, it will be interesting to see where the company’s next foray into social responsibility will lead it – and how the anti-maskers will respond.

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Image credit: Leon Kaye

Keeping the lights on across America’s bloated prison system surely has its financial benefits, especially for companies in the finance and energy sectors that have helped make racist policing tactics endemic in the U.S.

The Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) recently released the results of an investigation into the strong ties between police foundations and U.S. utilities, fossil fuel companies and banks. The report leaves a huge blot on the reputation of corporate America, which over the past several weeks has largely knotted itself into a pretzel as business leaders have tried to prove companies are in alignment with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Funding and enabling racist policing: how it works

According to PAI’s report, the energy and power generation sectors, along with the financial companies that have funded them over the years, have been active in contributing funds to police foundations in major U.S. cities. These foundations raise money to acquire weapons, surveillance technology and equipment, going beyond what municipal budgets have already been providing police departments. The links between this corporate support for racist policing and environmental degradation are especially visible in major energy producing states like Texas and Louisiana, the report reveals.

Furthermore, these same companies often sponsor parties and fundraisers, including a $5.5 million bash for New York City’s police foundation last year. Such galas offer a stark reminder that police departments and the powerful unions backing them have ongoing generous support of some of America’s largest corporations.

The copious amounts of spending add to what is often anywhere from the 20 to 45 percent of municipal budgets that cities allocate toward local policing efforts. In addition, the acquisition of military hardware, guns, drones – you name it – often occurs with little public oversight, so the racist policing continues with little impunity.

The report's authors go on to explain how the events that have unfolded in U.S. cities such as Atlanta and Portland are partly a reaction to this dynamic between companies and police foundations:

"The ongoing protests have emphasized that police exist to enforce a racist social order that protects corporations, capital, and buildings rather than black and brown lives. Police foundations are a key space for orchestrating, normalizing, and celebrating the collaboration between corporate power and the police."

A beneficial relationship at the expense of communities of color

The energy companies that PAI called out in its report include Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Shell and Valero. Each of these companies has its share of critics accusing them of polluting communities of color, while funding police departments in cities in which they have operations. Further, these same companies’ executives often have a seat on local police foundations’ boards of directors or take in active role in assisting with these groups’ fundraising efforts.

Utilities that have similar relationships with police foundations, according to PAI, comprise a roster that lists Detroit Edison, Exelon, Entergy and Georgia Power.

PAI’s researchers have also documented the relationships between America’s financial industry, the energy and power companies they fund, and how their connections with police foundations illustrate how fighting back against systemic racism in the U.S. will surely be a tall order.

For example, Bank of America, by at least one account, is a huge funder of the global energy sector, with its inking of more than $150 billion of financing directed to fossil fuel companies between 2016 and 2019. Besides the loans, the bank has either cut large checks or has a seat on the board of various police foundations that stretch coast to coast, from Los Angeles to New York, according to the report.

It turns out this financial giant is also “on watch”

BlackRock, which just recently put dozens of companies “on watch” over their environmental and sustainability performance, is also a major investor in fossil fuel companies, according to a 2019 Guardian report. Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, who makes headlines annually for his annual public letter to corporations urging them to change how they conduct business, is also a donor to New York City’s police foundation. One social justice organization, Color Of Change, recently urged Fink and BlackRock to cut its ties to that foundation.

Reversing this trend and its impact on racist policing will be an uphill fight, acknowledges PAI. “As demands continue to rise to defund the police and reinvest in Black and Brown communities, as well as to divest from the fossil fuel industry and reinvest in environmental justice and a just transition, the fossil fuel industry power structure presents a common foe for these interconnected fights,” the report’s authors concluded.

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It’s a stretch to say COVID-19 disrupted our voting and election systems here in the U.S. As is the case with many of our current social and political challenges, the pandemic merely exposed the deep flaws and unfairness in how citizens are too often denied their voting rights. We've seen this play out in the long lines in the Wisconsin and Georgia primaries.

This current reality unfolded over time largely by design: The Founding Fathers didn’t trust the people to vote directly for president, and states with smaller populations wanted guarantees that their rights wouldn’t be overrun roughshod by what were the largest states in late 18th-century America: Virginia and Pennsylvania.

But those technicalities don’t excuse the fact that now, in the 21st century, far too many U.S. citizens confront hurdles, state by state, when it comes to exercising their right to vote. That is especially true in Florida, where over a million formerly incarcerated citizens who have already paid their debt to society have been denied access to the ballot box.

To that end, LeBron James’ voting rights coalition, More Than a Vote, is determined to raise the funds needed to pay off the fees imposed on citizens with past felony records so they can cast their decisions at the ballot box during this November’s federal election.

The problem in Florida is that in the 2018 election, voters by almost a 30-point margin approved Amendment 4, which reinstated the voting rights to an estimated 1.4 million Floridians who had past felony convictions. The state’s legislature and governor, however, soon responded by passing a law that required those same citizens to pay any outstanding fines, fees and other financial penalties before they could vote again.

In swoops James and his organization, which is now partnering with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC). The Orlando-based group has established a “fines and fees” fund to help Floridians pay off any such debts. More Than a Vote announced last week it would raise $100,000 and contribute it to FRRC’s fund, which to date has raised over $1.5 million for this campaign.

More Than a Vote has won the support of additional professional athletes, including Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem, who last week told Politico, “Your right to vote shouldn’t depend upon whether or not you can pay to exercise it.”

While professional athletes and actors, along with former First Lady Michelle Obama, are leading the fight to ensure U.S. citizens’ voting rights, the private sector has been relatively silent.

The silence is deafening: Fears of uncertainty over what could happen this November, should the presidential election be a close one, would rattle the markets and risk even more economic chaos in addition to how the COVID-19 pandemic has already wreaked havoc across the U.S.

But despite those threats, the roster of companies speaking out is rather thin.

True, some coalitions working on bolstering voting rights are out there, including Time to Vote, which made some waves before the 2018 midterms, but has been silent since February. Patagonia is a leading example of a company that has been very vocal about voting rights, taking many steps including the closing of its doors so employees could vote on Election Day. The outdoor clothing and gear company is also partnering with Business for America, a nonprofit group that is pressuring the U.S. Congress to reform federal voting laws and secure the funds necessary so elections can run smoothly across the country.

Few companies, however, are willing to speak out on ensuring that U.S. election laws work for everyone, despite the fact that the current polarization of our political systems doesn’t bode well for either the economy or our collective well-being.  

“This system disincentivizes elected leaders from working together to identify risks, overcome obstacles, and reach consensus on common-sense solutions so we can run safe, secure, and accessible elections — even during a public health crisis,” Business for America wrote in a Medium post earlier this year. “Political dysfunction and election chaos are bad for our businesses, employees, customers, communities, and country.”

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As Plastic-Free July draws to a close, the looming ocean plastic crisis is still growing by the day. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. A new scientific study indicates that solutions to much of the problem are already at hand. One important missing ingredient is will power, and that is where leading brands have an opportunity to shine.

New study demonstrates pathways for taking on the ocean plastic crisis

First, the good news. Earlier this month, the highly respected journal Science published the results of a two-year, international study titled, “Evaluating scenarios toward z​​ero plastic pollution.”

The study was conducted under the auspices of the Preventing Ocean Plastics Campaign of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Based on a time frame of 2016 to 2040, the first-of-its-kind study modeled five pathways for taking on ocean plastic and other forms of plastic pollution.

“While no silver bullet exists, 78 percent of the plastic pollution problem can be solved by 2040 using current knowledge and technologies and at a lower net cost for waste management systems compared to [business as usual],” the study concluded.

Those findings validate the efforts of business leaders who are working to cut down on plastic waste.

Writing for CNN last week, reporter Helen Regan noted that the five pathways involve the entire supply chain, from reducing single-use plastic in manufacturing to ramping up recycling and reuse.

The study concluded that this combined approach can actually save money for governments. That provides businesses with a bottom-line basis for advocating in support of stronger policies that cut down on plastic waste.

How “invisible” workers can make a difference on ocean plastic

One particularly interesting result of the study points to a solution that provides decent jobs for underserved communities around the globe.

The study outlined several significant shortcomings in the global waste management infrastructure, including recycling capacity, landfills and incinerators. The most important bottleneck, though, is in collection services.

Study co-author Dr. Winnie Lau told CNN that “billions of people” lack formal collection services.

To a great extent, that gap is being filled by networks of freelance waste-pickers who labor under unsafe, unhealthy and unstable conditions.

By organizing waste-pickers into a respected economic and environmental force, the collection rate could be increased significantly while improving community well-being.

A movement in that direction is already taking shape, as illustrated by the nonprofit Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).

For businesses seeking ways to make a significant impact on ocean plastic, support for organizations like GAIA is a good place to start.

And now, for the bad news

With solutions at hand, a 78 percent reduction in plastic waste sounds impressive.

Unfortunately, it is not.

The scenario mapped out by the research team found that “even with immediate and concerted action, 710 million metric tons of plastic waste cumulatively entered aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems” by 2040.

“To avoid a massive build-up of plastic in the environment, coordinated global action is urgently needed to reduce plastic consumption, increase rates of reuse, waste collection and recycling, expand safe disposal systems and accelerate innovation in the plastic value chain,” the authors warn.

Public policies that continue to support plastic industry stakeholders share part of the blame. The rest lies squarely on the shoulders of consumers.

“Plastic pollution is globally ubiquitous. It is found throughout the oceans, in lakes and rivers, in soils and sediments, in the atmosphere, and in animal biomass,” the authors write. "This proliferation has been driven by rapid growth in plastic production and use combined with linear economic models that ignore the externalities of waste. A sharp rise in single-use plastic consumption and an expanding ‘throw-away culture’ have exacerbated the problem.”

Businesses engage consumers on plastic waste

While the outlook is dire, the new study indicates that businesses are on the right track when they urge their customers to be more conscious about plastic waste in general, and the ocean plastic problem in particular.

Beverage and food brands are beginning to take the lead in that regard. One good example is Bacardi, which has leveraged the global plastic straw campaign to draw attention to the ocean plastic problem.

AB-InBev’s Corona brand has adopted a similar approach by experimenting with biodegradable six-pack rings, and spirits leader Diageo is introducing a paper pulp bottle for its Johnnie Walker brand.

Other leading brands, including Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, are also taking more steps to reduce plastic while raising consumer awareness.

Companies that do not rely on single-use packaging can also take action by identifying consumer behaviors that contribute to the problem.

That movement is already under way in organized sports, where fans are encouraged to recycle. However, there are other opportunities that are not being exploited. The auto industry, for example, could be more proactive in discouraging drivers from throwing bottles, cans and other trash out of cars.

Companies can also scout for new alliances that reduce plastic waste. One good example is the collaboration between UPS and the startup Loop to promote reusable food containers. Kitchen appliance manufacturers could hitch a ride on that effort, too.

New recycling and upcycling technologies are also on the horizon, but those solutions may be years away.

In the meantime, leading brands can make a big difference by exercising creativity and seeking new opportunities to reach consumers with positive messages about their contributions to a healthier, more sustainable future.

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Image: Between laundry, food, cleaning and, yes, swimming pools, 10 percent of hotels’ utility bills are linked to water consumption. Ecolab, a $13 billion company, says it has a plan to help industries, including the hospitality sector, become far more sustainable.

Ecolab is a 97-year-old company that provides consulting services and solutions on water, hygiene, and infection prevention to the food, healthcare, hospitality and industrial markets. In a bid to show its leadership over the next decade, the company recently launched its 2030 Impact Goals for streamlining both its own operations and how it will approach its work with customers.

For its customer-driven work, Ecolab aims to help the industries with which it works by conserving 300 billion gallons of water annually while helping its customers become carbon neutral by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 4.5 million metric tons.

When looking at its customer base, the company will face many challenges in executing this strategy over the next 10 years. The hospitality industry, in particular, has an uneven success rate in meeting sustainability goals. But Ecolab, with its presence at 3 million commercial locations, is primed to meet and even exceed these goals.

Ecolab could rethink how the hospitality sector approaches sustainability

With much of the world not traveling during the coronavirus pandemic, the hospitality industry has taken a major financial hit. But hotels will fill their rooms again, and they will once again be dealing with big utility bills.

One of the problems facing hotels when it comes to energy and water use is the same as apartment buildings: the split incentive. The people who build or own hotels are typically not the people who manage or run them. Those that do typically have more robust sustainability achievements as opposed to those who rely on investor-owned properties. Appliance and equipment upgrades have an upfront cost, which may not translate into savings in short-term profit statements.

Hotels are responsible for about 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in normal times, and they are also significant water users, from laundry to food services to meeting guests’ needs. About 10 percent of a hotel’s utility bill is for water. An important thing to note about Ecolab’s goals is that one of the ways it intends to help customers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is through water conservation and better water management practices.

This matters for two reasons: Looking at emissions and water holistically increases the opportunities and efficiencies in any strategy deployed as water conservation measures are typically cheaper to implement than energy-efficiency measures. The state of California found that utilities could achieve the same level of energy reductions using water conservation as they could using traditional energy-efficiency measures, but at half the cost. For an industry already faced with plummeting revenues, such a strategy could be an important selling point.

The global hospitality sector has set ambitious goals, but could use a lift

The hospitality industry is vast, with every conceivable size, budget, and level of commitment to sustainability represented. The industry as a whole has set significant goals and made commendable improvements. For example, the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) states that the industry must reduce emissions by 66 percent by 2030 to stay within the acceptable 2 degrees Celsius threshold set by the Paris climate agreement. The ITP requires members to set science-based targets and provides a Hotel Footprinting Tool to help them do that.

But some insiders say that the goals being set by different companies are not as effective as they could be. Tangible goals designed for the hospitality industry could help with consistency and measurement as well as provide an understandable goal for the hotels themselves, such as a carbon dioxide-equivalent/room-night. Science-based goals and accountability are critical for success.

One day we will all be able to travel again. In the meantime, while more people stay home, it is a good opportunity for hotels to set serious goals and figure out how to implement them. Addressing water conservation as a way to reduce not only overall emissions but also water use itself must be a critical component of the hospitality industry’s sustainability goals. We’ll be pleased to see the strides they’ve made when we book our stay — and Ecolab’s work could be an important factor in experiencing a far different hospitality industry a decade from now.

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Image: KFC says it’s embarking on a trial run of lab-grown chicken nuggets as alternative to its popular popcorn nuggets, shown above.

The Colonel and KFC are jumping into the laboratory meat (also known as “cultivated” or “clean” meat) sector, with expectations that once the final product launches, the results will be finger-lickin’ good.

KFC has jumped on the lab-grown meat bandwagon

The fast-food giant says it is collaborating with Russian company 3D Bioprinting Solutions to develop the first lab-created chicken nuggets using 3D-printing technology. The process involves employing additive bioprinting technology using chicken cells and plant material, with the final product having the taste and texture of chicken meat. For its part, KFC will provide the coating and the Colonel’s special blend of herbs and spices.

“Our experiment in testing 3D bioprinting technology to create chicken products can also help address several looming global problems,” said Raisa Polyakova, general manager of KFC Russia and Commonwealth Independent States (CIS), in a prepared statement.

If successful, the 3D-printed nuggets could become a step toward addressing nutritional, environmental and economic issues related to food, including consumers' desire for more healthful foods, the growing demand for meat alternatives and the pressure for more sustainable methods of food production, particularly when it comes to meat.

The long-term environmental benefits of producing lab-grown meat

Lab-grown meat does not require land and other resources, such as water, needed to raise livestock, and spares the lives of animals. It also reduces pollution by taking animal waste out of the mix and creates products free of the substances used in animal husbandry. The meat is grown in labs using muscle cells from animals.   

The company touted a study published a decade ago in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, which concluded that the cultivation of meat from cells instead of relying on the slaughtering of animals has only minimal environment impact. The practice could also slash energy consumption by more than half, reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25-fold, and use 100 times less land than conventional meat production.

KFC is moving into a rapidly expanding sector, one in which the number of investors and companies trying to create and market clean meat keeps growing. Clean meat companies raised $77 million in venture capital in 2019, according to a report from the Good Food Institute (GFI). “As it becomes clearer that cellular agriculture is the future of animal meat production, increasingly more investors, governments, scientists and entrepreneurs are diving in,” the report noted. “It is now, more than ever, apparent that our current system of meat, eggs and dairy production is vulnerable and inadequate.”

Investors see opportunities in reinventing meat

By the end of 2019, 55 clean or cultivated meat companies had formed worldwide. Out of those, 20 were new in 2019, and the focus of seven of those new to the market is serving cultivated meat companies business-to-business, according to GFI.

One of the earlier entries into the clean meat arena, Memphis Meats, received $186 million in Series B funding earlier this year, which several news outlets, including Forbes, reported is the largest investment in the history of the industry. The company plans to use the money to hire more staff, construct a pilot production facility and, four years after its founding, get its meat products into the marketplace.  

Memphis Meats launched in 2016 with $2 million in seed funding. The California-based company has already touted its success creating the “world’s first cultured meatball,” and has developed meat out of pig, chicken and beef cells. 

The enthusiasm for lab-grown meat goes beyond the environmental benefits: Advocates of this sector believe that meat grown from cells is the best way to replicate the taste and quality of conventional meat. To that end, some researchers are trying to replicate the meat “feel” as much as they can. In one approach to cell-based meat (CBM) production, a soy protein “scaffold” is used to support three types of bovine muscle tissue to create a product that not only tastes like steak, but also feels more like a steak when it’s eaten.

But while investors have moved quickly to find opportunities in this space, not all efforts have been successful. For example, Hampton Creek, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2011 and known originally for its popular plant-based sauces and spreads, received hundreds of millions of dollars in investment since the mid-2010s and had planned to launch clean meat products in 2018. But the company was accused of buying its own merchandise to increase sales, and some stores yanked products from shelves due to safety concerns. The company has rebranded as Just, and while paring down its offerings considerably, it says it is still working on launching a clean meat product.

Despite some setbacks, researchers see promising results coming from labs, although consumer acceptance will be the real test. As for KFC, the company says the first nuggets are scheduled to be test marketed in Moscow this fall.

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The recent nationwide protests for racial justice are one powerful way to shine a light on systemic racism. But over on Wall Street, bridging capital to the cause is the aim of the market’s only racial equity product: the Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF, or NACP, which recently celebrated its second anniversary. Backed by the NAACP, the country’s leading civil rights organization, the fund is giving investors a lens for evaluating companies with strong racial and ethnic diversity policies.

NACP was launched in 2018 through a collaboration between the NAACP, the Rockefeller Foundation and Impact Shares. It began trading in July 2018, and it remains the only racial equity product in the marketplace. NACP tracks the Morningstar Minority Empowerment Index, designed to provide exposure to companies meeting NAACP criteria. It has also given the NAACP an effective new tool for its economic advocacy in the fight to eliminate racial discrimination.

“Too little attention has been paid to historically marginalized communities,” Ethan Powell, CEO of Impact Shares, told TriplePundit. “Gender funds have become popular in recent years. However, the way in which the private sector can engage communities of color differ from gender-oriented initiatives including digital divide programs and community engagement programs.”

The fund launched at a time when the private sector is facing increasing pressure from investors and other stakeholders to create and implement policies and practices that support racial diversity. Since then, NACP has proven that a socially focused financial instrument can perform well with an annualized two-year return of 11.9 percent. This places it in the top fourth percentile in its Morningstar Category over that period. 

“The goal is for investors to achieve an equity market rate of return while leveraging capital and the NAACP's corporate engagement to make meaningful changes in the private sector,” Powell said. “Annually, we reevaluate the screens used to identify companies that are considered leaders in empowering communities of color and we rescore the universe. The goal is to have the solution evolve as data availability, goals of the NAACP and the issues impacting communities of color evolve.”

The NACP’s screens are divided into 10 categories. They include board diversity, discrimination policies and freedom of association, the scope of supplier social programs, and a minority focus in supplier monitoring. Screens also look for initiatives to address the digital divide, a diversity program, a community development program, and a minority-focused health and safety system. Each company is evaluated relative to their direct competitors. The goal is to identify 200 corporate leaders across all sectors.

The NACP’s current holdings list includes a range of Fortune 500 companies, such as tech giants Alphabet Inc, the holding company for Google, along with Apple and Intel. The list also includes leaders within the finance sector like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. In addition, the pharmaceutical, automotive, food and retail sectors have representation with companies such as Abbott, Ford, Kellogg, Merck, McDonald's and Starbucks. “Inclusion represents a company's leadership position in their sector,” Powell explains. “Position sizing has more to do with minimizing tracking error to the broader equity market.”

Since the Black Lives Matter movement has gathered steam across the nation, Powell said he has seen a resurgence in interest in the NACP. In fact, as 3p has reported, investing through an environmental, social and governance (ESG) lens has been on the upswing, appearing to be pandemic-proof. “Investors, the public sector and general population are reevaluating their role in racial empowerment and recognizing the efficacy of the NACP solution — not least, because, among some 600 ESG funds, it is the only one solely focused on issues impacting communities of color.”

For the NAACP, the fund has been an important part of its strategy for corporate engagement, Marvin Owen, senior director of the NAACP's economic department, told 3p. “NACP has provided the NAACP with important advocacy, as social change is being driven by capital markets, and specifically investor sentiment," he said. "Examples of impact include the numbers of firms that have sought out engagement with the NAACP with the expectation of identifying best practices in recruiting African-Americans for C-suite and board opportunities, as well as best practices in establishing impactful supplier diversity programs.”

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In public relations, there’s a saying: “Don’t let a good crisis go to waste.”

Sadly, some companies haven’t abided by this old adage, and to their detriment.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some brave companies – clearly focused on people over profits – did things like Allstate giving $600 million back to customers because, obviously, there are fewer car accidents when everyone’s stuck at home watching YouTube. Meanwhile, other companies – notably some automobile manufacturers – still seemed intent on selling us a new vehicle (but don’t worry, you can defer payments ‘til this is hopefully all over).

Why does this matter so much?

These companies’ actions matter because we live in unprecedented times. In a newly transparent world, we can peer into the windows of companies to see whether or not they are being honest about what’s going on in the world, what’s happening in the minds of consumers, and what’s occurring within their own ranks of employees, partners and customers.

As a society, we’re growing increasingly aware about workers’ rights, social justice, climate change and more, because we now know how companies are taking a stand on these issues, or not.

And the spotlight has perhaps never shone brighter than right now in the middle of a global pandemic.

In fact, a recent investor survey, that queried participants totaling nearly $13 trillion in assets under management found that more than 70 percent believe unforeseen events like COVID-19 will spark investor interest in tackling issues like the climate crisis. And more than 50 percent said the pandemic would be positive for ESG (environmental, social and governance) momentum over the next three years. 

This makes sense since, with more information, we investors will invest more thoughtfully and in places that align more closely with our values. After all, we investors have reputations to protect, too, and no one wants to be responsible for taking our bright future away from younger generations.

In a way, the pandemic has accelerated the ESG movement faster than any of us might have imagined: It has given us more free time to research, a bigger spotlight on what companies are doing in a crisis, and a rare opportunity to step back as a community to ask ourselves how the public and private sectors help or hinder us lowly consumers with their beliefs, values and actions.

Meanwhile, thanks to organizations like Just Capital, we can measure outcomes based on ESG factors like never before, with research showing that companies that act more justly — more honestly­ on issues important to the consumer public — earn a return on equity (ROE) that is 6.4 percent higher than peers who don’t rank well on matters like workers’ rights, environmental issues and more, giving organizations a real monetary incentive to start caring about not only what they do, but also how they do it.

No matter what happens in the coming months, long-term ESG trends will only grow until they become not a factor but the factor in how we invest our time and money, both as investors and as more thoughtful consumers and employees. It is inevitable because, as I’ll paraphrase from Martin Whittaker, the CEO of Just Capital and one of the amazing CEOs I interview in my book, folks behave differently in the light than they do in the dark.

No matter what, history will be on the side of honesty and transparency here, if for no other reason than we now have more knowledge and awareness about ESG-related issues than ever before.

For some companies this will be a death knell. For others, however, the truth will set them free — and the environment, our fellow citizens and the free-market economy we depend on will all be better off for it.

Image credit: Ying Ge/Unsplash