How much is us bank investing in dapl

Brought to you by Green America and Social k , national leaders in advancing socially and environmentally responsible investing SRI. Typically, when a risk is shown to be material, creditors develop the capability to assess and monitor that risk. This lack of data led to terrible decision-making and loss of financial value, in addition to severe reputation damage to investors. Nicholas Pelosi, First Peoples Worldwide. But who is worthy of handling our stacks? Definitions of Financial Instituti At the same time, I was working with a core group of the early social investors such as Trillium, Boston Common Assets, and Pax to facilitate information flow and filing shareholder resolutions recognizing Indigenous Peoples rights.

Seattle is two states and one big mountain range away from North Dakota.

Bak website uses cookies in order to enhance your experience. Please review our Privacy Policy to learn how we may use cookies and how you can change your browser settings to disable cookies. By continuing to use this website without changing your settings, you consent to our use of cookies. But for Lisa Herbold, a Seattle city council member, the voices of folks shivering outside in America’s heartland needed to be heard. And for many Seattle residents, that’s a problem. The transfer makes for one of investng bank’s largest consumer blowbacks .

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Behind the scenes — and occasionally, in the public eye — investors also took concrete actions, both pressuring banks and divesting from related firms. Rebecca is an indigenous economist and Cherokee advocate for indigenous rights since This interview with Rebecca is part of The Money Story series, and looks both backward at how the investor movement came together around DAPL, and forward to ways that people can still support ongoing work for indigenous rights both around Standing Rock and more generally. Q: As an indigenous rights activist, how did you become exposed to, and interested in, social investing? As the only Native American on the board of a socially responsible mutual fund, I started using my values in my investment decisions way back in the s.

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Behind the scenes — and occasionally, in the public eye — investors also took concrete actions, both pressuring banks and divesting from related firms. Rebecca is an indigenous economist and Cherokee advocate for indigenous rights since This interview with Rebecca is part of The Money Story series, and looks both backward at how the investor movement came together around DAPL, and forward to ways that people can still support ongoing work for indigenous rights both around Standing Rock and more generally.

Q: As an indigenous rights activist, how did you become exposed to, and interested in, social investing? As the only Native American on the board of a socially responsible mutual fund, I started using my values in my investment decisions way back in the s.

At the time I was working with Tribes on a range of tribal credit unions, loan funds, banks, and microfinance loan funds. This same range of financial vehicles spread across low-income communities throughout the US and became a national movement of organizations called Community Development Financial Institutions CDFI. Because of this work John Guffey and Wayne Silby, the founders of the Calvert Social Investment Fund, invited me to join their board in with the mandate to find ways to bridge these community development financial institutions with capital markets.

Yet Calvert shareholders approved it unanimously and many other social investors, sustainable investors, and Environmental, Social, and Governance ESG investors followed. At the same time, I was working with a core dalp of the early social investors such as Trillium, Boston Common Assets, and Pax to facilitate information flow and filing shareholder resolutions recognizing Indigenous Peoples rights. This group evolved into the Investors and Indigenous Peoples Working Group and to this day plays a key role in engaging companies and banks on Indigenous Peoples rights.

Q: What role did investors have to play in supporting the Standing Rock Sioux? DAPL had already been rerouted once to assure the people of Bismarck North Dakota that their drinking water was protected. Energy Transfer Partners was a master limited partnership, and how much is us bank investing in dapl of the project-level DAPL financing was through banks, so we basically had two tiers of investors: the bank lenders and the unitholders in the MLP.

We saw massive, coordinated action from both investors and activists. Twelve of the banks met with the tribe, and ten banks signed a statement requesting changes to the Equator Principles, an ESG risk management framework used by 90 banks worldwide in the aftermath of their bad experience with DAPL. These banks called for the Equator Principles to be strengthened to improve their ability to properly assess hhow related to human rights and other environmental and social concerns.

Q: Do you think this work was successful? What were the key takeaways for investors? No other event in the 21 st century has done more to demonstrate that ESG investors need better social metrics and optimal data than the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This lack of data led to terrible decision-making and loss of financial value, in addition to severe reputation damage to investors. Social risks can become material risks. Without a board of directors who had any expertise in social and by relying on information that did not match the realities on the ground, investors, banks and the company operated blindly until the problem became front page news.

This falls into the average range of all companies we rate and reflects a low level of concern. It had a long track record of environmental violations including 5 pending lawsuits by the states invrsting New Jersey, Vermont, Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the City of Breaux Bridge Louisiana over contamination of groundwater.

ETP had also been cited by 7 states for releasing hazardous materials from its facilities. Typically, when a risk is shown to be material, creditors develop the capability to assess and monitor that risk. That should be happening. This is a great question investong in many ways it embodies the players and components of Social Performance. First and foremost it is the role of Government to balance all of these interests for the ivnesting well-being of society. When a Government fails to uphold the rule of law, or inadequately regulates corporations in the first place, when benefits accrue to only investkng few, when people are disenfranchised from decisions that impact their lives — then you have the stage set for social conflict.

Mych the case of DAPL, scores of local governments passed ue supporting the people and communities of Standing Rock — but how did the State government of North Dakota respond? The oil boom peaked in Oil production and the corresponding man camps housing thousands of oil workers tripled crime by percent from towith Native women being heavily impacted.

According to one report, sexual assaults on women on the Fort Berthold reservation have increased by They made it crystal clear whose side they have been on. Significantly ESG research exists to demonstrate that in-country risk or, at the more local levels, an in-community risk is a key driver of business risk. In other words, poor governments become a lightning rod for corporate risk. And in general, we see that fossil fuel companies globally are notoriously problematic when it comes to respecting human rights.

Social media offered DAPL the opportunity to be heard when mainstream news outlets were ignoring it. For example, Idle No More was a national campaign led by Canadian First Nations to demand policies that upheld their right for self-determination and to protest unwanted oil, gas and mining development on their territories.

Launched December 16thIdle No More had overmentions on Facebook and overfollowers on Twitter by December 21st — 5 days! Launched totally via social media the NoDAPL Day of Action resulted in solidarity events across all fifty states and drew tens of thousands of demonstrators including global events in dozens of cities such as London, Paris, Auckland, Kyoto, and Marrakesh. Thousands of individuals called on the White House to halt the pipeline.

While civil society has accelerated its use of social media, investors have yet to harness this information infrastructure in ways that can help identify social risk and enhance social performance.

Q: This is not the first time that investors have been called upon to support indigenous rights, both domestically and globally. Are there ways that investors investijg be more proactively supportive of indigenous rights? Investors have traditionally been unprepared to support indigenous peoples — and have the opportunity post-DAPL to dapp more systems in place to identify ib respect indigenous needs before the next crisis emerges.

This October the 90 banks who signed onto the Equator Principles will be meeting in Washington DC to consider strengthening their Indigenous Peoples policies. This is a great first step, but these signatories — which include major financial institutions such as Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC Holdings, and Wells Fargo —still need to be held accountable by their consumers for making sure the meeting has a concrete outcome.

Given the growing evidence of the materiality of Environmental, Social and Governance factors for credit risk, creditors should be building in stronger ESG due diligence into their credit assessment systems and even incorporating covenants that stipulate compliance with ESG targets into loans that face risks from indigenous land claims, as well as external stakeholders more broadly.

Investors should pressure firms in which they invest or to which they issue debt to adopt best practices in stakeholder engagement. Iw should be an existence of a sustainability or social performance muc at the board level. Material ESG factors how much is us bank investing in dapl impact senior management compensation and promotion and there should be an advisory role for external stakeholders. Absent evidence of the adoption and ongoing implementation of such practices, they should price securities and loans taking into account the higher probability of lower and more variable returns.

Over two thousand veterans answered a Facebook call for help and showed up at Standing Rock. The sheer number of online social media participants in DAPL speaks volumes to the power of social media.

I am an investor and activist who has been building bridges between finance and social justice for close to twenty years. Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin. Nicholas Dspl, First Peoples Worldwide. Morgan Simon. Read More.

Who’s Investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline? Meet the Banks Financing Attacks on Protesters

Yet Calvert shareholders approved it unanimously and many other social investors, sustainable investors, and Environmental, Social, and Governance ESG investors followed. X Donate. In the case of DAPL, scores of local governments passed resolutions supporting the people and communities of Standing Muh — but how did the State government of North Dakota respond? Significantly ESG research exists to demonstrate that in-country risk or, at the more local levels, an in-community risk is a key driver of business dspl. This lack of data led to terrible decision-making and loss of financial value, in addition to severe reputation damage to investors. These banks called for the Equator Jn to be strengthened to improve their ability to properly assess risks related to human rights and other environmental and social concerns. More in Living All Living. When a Government fails to uphold the rule of law, or inadequately regulates corporations in the first how much is us bank investing in dapl, when benefits accrue to only a few, when people are disenfranchised from decisions that impact their lives — then you have the stage set for social conflict. The sheer number of online yow media participants in DAPL speaks volumes to the power of social media. They also get their fingers in all kinds of investments and deals, including those that support energy projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline — a 1,mile pipeline that would carry oil from North Dakota across four states, and carry a whole lotta polluting and invesing baggage .