LAS VEGAS -- More than a half-dozen progressive groups announced Tuesday that they're banding together to form a new group, to be known as the Nevada Climate Justice Coalition. The new organization will work to educate people on the effects of climate change, especially on low-income communities of color.

Jackie Chiakulas, environmental justice advocate with the groups PLAN Action and 350.org, said there's strength in numbers.

"We figured it was more powerful to be working together instead of separately," she said, "so we wanted to form a coalition to really address climate change and the impact that it is already having on our state."

The new coalition includes multiple nonoprofit groups, including Mi Familia Vota, Moms Clean Air Force, Ecomadres, the Sierra Club and the Sunrise Movement. Together, Chiakulas said, they also will work to modify a proposed federal public-lands bill, called the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act. The bill would preserve some public lands, but allow for more development, particularly around the edges of the Las Vegas area.

Chiakulas said she worries that the bill would encourage suburban sprawl all the way to Primm, which she said would cause more traffic and air pollution.

"The bill doesn't talk about public transportation. It would probably affect our affordable housing here," she said. "It doesn't mention water, so there's a lot of elements with environmental justice that it doesn't address."

The Clark County Commission is expected to weigh in on the bill in the coming weeks. The coalition is hoping the state's congressional delegation will step in to encourage more growth on unused lands within Clark County, rather than allowing large, new suburban developments.

A draft version of the public-lands bill is online at clarkcountynv.gov.

By Grace Hussain for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Commonwealth News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration

The food we eat is responsible for as much as a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Most of that comes from beef — including millions of burgers served up by fast food chains across the world. To date, fast food companies have made little progress in curbing their climate pollution, but pressure to hold these corporations accountable is beginning to come from what may seem like an unlikely group: their own shareholders. This year, fast food chains Jack in the Box and Wingstop agreed to publish their first set of measurable climate targets, led by a group called The Accountability Board.

The two-year-old nonprofit owns shares in roughly 100 publicly traded companies. Its purpose: “to hold companies accountable on issues relating to the environment, social matters and corporate governance,” says Matt Prescott. Prescott is a co-founder and one of the leaders of the organization.

How Shareholders Pressure Jack in the Box and Other Fast Food Chains

Shareholders, at least those that own a certain percentage of a company, are able to file proposals asking for action by the company that the shareholder wants to see. A growing movement of nonprofit shareholders have also used this strategy to increase corporate accountability. Kevin Chuah, PhD, an assistant professor at Northeastern University who researches stakeholder activism, explains the tactic: “They’re using the financial system infrastructure to enable them to get access to companies that they might not get access to otherwise.”

The Accountability Board focuses on the food and agriculture sector in particular, says Prescott, including industry giants like Tyson Foods and Hormel Foods. While issues like corporate governance and diversity, equity, inclusion and justice are universal across industries, food and agriculture companies are unique in their outsized impact on the environment and animal welfare, Prescott says.

Most multinational corporations have made public climate commitments, but many have failed to back them up with actionable plans for accomplishing those goals. That was the case too with Jack in the Box, Prescott tells Sentient. “They’ve got disclosures about risks posed by climate change and other environmental issues, but the company didn’t actually have measurable goals for reducing its emissions,” he says. But thanks to the newly-passed proposal, now they will.

Jack in the Box now reports scope 1 and 2 emissions — emissions the company directly emits or that are generated from the electricity or other utilities the chain uses. In the food sector however, as much as 90 percent of greenhouse gasses come from scope 3 sources, with most of those coming from meat and dairy products. Scope 3 refers to emissions that come from a company’s supply chain, which in this case, includes the very beef burgers that are a massive driver of food-related emissions.

Yet an important part of The Accountability Board’s strategy is structuring their proposals strategically to make it more likely to actually pass. The group aims to keep them general, says Prescott, in this case asking for measurable targets, but not prescribing exactly what those targets should be.

Ahead of the vote, the nonprofit’s team spent time engaging with the largest shareholders to ensure they would find the proposal appealing. When it comes to “major shareholders, like BlackRock and Vanguard Group,” says Prescott, they lean against supporting proposals “that are overly prescriptive.”

A Brief History of Shareholder Activism

Shareholder activism traces its roots back to the 1980s, when individuals or groups would acquire shares in companies in order to push for some kind of change within the corporation. At that time, shareholder activists usually sold their shares once they accomplished their goals, earning them the nickname of “corporate raiders.”

Since then, shareholder activists have managed to reform their reputation, even with corporate executives. According to Chuah, whose research focuses specifically on environmental, social and governance issues, a number of executives can point to “situations where shareholders have brought interesting information to us that we hadn’t thought about before.”

The Accountability Board doesn’t usually sell its shares, instead choosing to maintain and also grow its portfolio by acquiring stock in new companies, says Prescott. Most of the shares the organization owns were bought with an initial $11 million grant from the non-profit foundation, Open Philanthropy. Tax records indicate the group’s investments netted them $17,280 in 2022, but because The Accountability Board was formed in the latter part of that year, the figure only reflects a few months of proceeds.

For Chuah, shareholder activists are one piece of the bigger picture of change. Agitator nonprofits and religious groups are often the “innovators,” he says, the ones “who get issues onto the table and effectively bring them to the attention of the mainstream.” Next, “the institutional investors get on board.” Real progress, he says, will require both: those working within and outside of institutions.


Grace Hussain wrote this article for Sentient.

A new report highlighted the growth of Pennsylvania's methane mitigation industry, showing positive effects on the economy, job market and environment.

Pennsylvania ranks among the top five states for methane mitigation activities, accounting for 8.5% of the total employee locations in the sector nationwide.

Marcy Lowe, CEO of Datu Research, said Pennsylvania's state-level methane rules have led to a 22.2% increase in methane mitigation companies over the past three years and 65% over the past decade.

"These, by the way, are firms that are both manufacturing firms and service firms that help oil and gas operators reduce the amount of methane that escapes from their operations," Lowe pointed out. "Methane, of course, is a very potent greenhouse gas, far more potent than even CO2."

Lowe emphasized the need to prevent system leaks and alter operations to avoid venting and flaring, which release significant amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Lowe stressed reducing methane emissions significantly improves air quality and public health, which is especially important in communities with historically poor air quality. She also noted the reduction has boosted employment opportunities in Pennsylvania, providing valuable and good-quality jobs in the methane mitigation sector.

"All the way up to computer and informational scientists that make $145,000 annual salary, to sort of the middle range," Lowe outlined. "You might have mechanical engineers making $99,000 all the way down to assemblers and fabricators making about $40,000 per year."

Lowe said they used Bureau of Labor Statistics data to understand the pay for the jobs, focusing on the median annual salary across the United States. Lowe added the number of employee locations in Pennsylvania's methane mitigation industry has grown to 50 this year, a more than 38% increase since 2021.


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The mayor of Dearborn has adopted a "health-in-all-policies" approach, a pledge to prioritize health, environmental justice and climate action in city decisions.

Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, announced the initiative with other city officials at an event hosted by the group Elected Officials to Protect America. With funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Dearborn is updating ordinances, zoning and permits to make the "greenest" choices easier for all.

Hammoud noted severe weather left nearly two-thirds of Dearborn homes underwater just a few years ago.

"Over the last 10 years, the City of Dearborn has had several flooding events; three," Hammoud pointed out. "We are taking all the proactive steps that we must to help prevent flooding from happening in the future."

Hammoud earned national recognition with a Mayors Climate Protection Award at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, making Dearborn one of six large cities honored.

Ashley Flintoff, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of the Rouge, a group working to clean up the Rouge River, said choices made about chemical use, stormwater runoff and natural habitat loss mainly affect communities of color.

"Causing flooding and sewage backups in residential basements," Flintoff observed. "This creates direct mental and physical health consequences for residents, particularly those in the hardest-hit neighborhoods, like the South End."

David Mustonen, communications director for Dearborn Public Schools, said after concerns about kids' exposure to diesel fumes at bus stops, the school district is replacing diesel buses, using more than $7 million in federal funding.

"With the purchase of 18 electric school buses, we look forward for these buses arriving and being delivered to the district soon, so that we can put them into service and remove 18 diesel buses," Mustonen explained.

The Inflation Reduction Act offers communities incentives and grants to cover upfront costs for other "green" projects, including solar power.


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