Active Ownership Successes 1

CBIS Advises Newmont Mining
A highlight of the active ownership program in 2008 was our work with Newmont Mining on the issue of environmental justice. In 2007, Newmont’s Board of Directors created an independent advisory panel to study community relations at mining sites in Nevada, Indonesia, Peru and Ghana, where Newmont has encountered widely publicized community resistance to its mining operations. Advisory panel members include highly regarded NGOs such as Oxfam and EARTHWORKS, noted academics and CBIS. We are pleased to be included on this prestigious panel. In 2008, a research team hired by Newmont’s board to evaluate ways the company can improve environmental and social performance completed its work, and it will publish its recommendations at Newmont’s April 2009 annual meeting. Our panel reviewed several drafts of the report and gave extensive feedback to the research team. The advisory panel’s primary mission will conclude with the publication of the completed report. Newmont’s board will then draw on the report as it recommends policies to improve community relations at mining sites.

Withdrawn Resolutions Show Progress
Our preferred approach to engagement with management is a meaningful and respectful dialogue based on our rights as shareholders, as exemplified in the 25 dialogues we maintained in 2008 covering a wide range of participant concerns. Filing a shareholder resolution is one means to encourage such a dialogue. And we are pleased that in 2008 we were able to withdraw resolutions at Cisco, Dillard’s, FelCor, Ford and Lowe’s after the companies agreed to engage us in discussion, strengthen their policies and/or improve their reporting to shareholders on the issues of concern.

Cisco — Our work with Cisco Systems on the issue of executive compensation produced an agreement with the chairman of the compensation committee of the board to provide shareholders with more information and better transparency regarding pay policies. As a result, we withdrew our resolution that asked Cisco to put its executive pay decisions up for an advisory vote by shareholders. The same resolution won 48% of the vote at Cisco’s November 2007 annual meeting. The chairman said that the board would study the issue and release a report at the company’s 2009 shareholder meeting outlining its decision on whether to support an annual advisory vote. We hope the committee will agree to support the inclusion of our withdrawn “Say on Pay” proposal on next year’s proxy ballot.

Dillard’s — We withdrew our resolution at Dillard’s that asked the retailer to establish vendor labor standards after the company agreed to: i) require better protections for workers at vendor factories; ii) issue a report on the ways it assesses labor standards at the factories that make its clothing; iii) monitor vendor compliance; and iv) report on any concerns discovered and how they were resolved.

FelCor — We withdrew from FelCor Lodging after the company, a real estate investment trust (REIT), agreed to a dialogue and to report on its energy efficiency measures and the ways it seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the 100 hotels in its portfolio. Also, for the first time, the company posted basic information about its environmental and social performance on its website. Shareholders can now point to this to encourage other REITs to provide similar information.

Ford — Our filing group withdrew a resolution at Ford Motor after the company agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its new vehicle fleet by at least 30% by the year 2020. This commitment makes Ford the first U.S. auto company to set an emissions reduction target. The company also provided a detailed analysis of its fuel emissions goals showing how the reduction would be achieved. The most any U.S. auto company had previously agreed to on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions was enhanced reporting of climate change risks or establishment of emissions reduction goals without showing how they could be met.

Lowe’s — We withdrew our resolution at Lowe’s after the company agreed to a dialogue, to include a section in its sustainability report on site selection for new stores, and to report on how its community engagement policies ensure protection of historic sites, the environment and sacred lands when new stores are sited and developed.