| Agency uses clout to address AIDS, global warming by Amy Green UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE Encouraging more responsibility in the business world for AIDS and global warming is a focus this year for the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits. The board is also urging businesses to invest more in community development, especially in poor countries. And it is emphasizing water conservation. With more than $11 billion in assets, the board manages the largest pension fund of any Protestant denomination. Using The United Methodist Church’s Social Principles and other policies as gbwc_superuseres, the board relies on its clout as an institutional investor to promote socially responsible business practices. Much of that work occurs in the spring, when most publicly traded U.S. corporations have annual shareholder meetings. ' We like to think of ourselves as being in ministry to actually implement the Social Principles of the church through our investments — investing money to get a favorable financial return for our pension plan participants but also using our pension fund influence to encourage corporations to be better corporate citizens,' said Vidette Bullock Mixon, the board’s director of corporate relations in Evanston, Ill. Already this year, the board persuaded Reebok to give an online report about plans to address greenhouse gas emissions. The company in the past had been receptive to the board’s stance on human rights and labor practices but appeared to be lacking on this issue, Mixon said. Through talks with the company, board staff learned Reebok already was environmentally minded but had not reported much of its work publicly. The board also joined with others to call on ExxonMobil, one of South Africa’s largest employers, to share with shareholders how the company plans to address AIDS. Represen-tatives from the company met with the board, agreeing on a plan to educate employees and work with community centers to spread awareness and offer testing. For the first time this year, the board is targeting global warming among smaller oil and gas companies. Often larger companies are resistant to environmentally minded policies because of cost concerns, and they worry about losing their competitive edge, Mixon said. This strategy aims to eliminate that problem. The board accomplishes much of its work by filing shareholder resolutions that promote accountability by urging businesses to report publicly on their progress on various issues. Businesses post these reports on their Web sites and in financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or distribute them among shareholders. Often the board’s resolutions are withdrawn if the business agrees to work with the board on an issue. ' As a shareholder we’re entitled to have a voice in the companies in which we invest,' Mixon said. 'We’re trying to bring the same level of reporting to concerns of social importance as the financial reporting that’s currently mandated.' The board increases its clout by joining with other religious investors as a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a coalition of 275 religious investors. Among these investors, the board is a leader on worker rights with companies such as Wal-Mart, Nike and Disney, said the Rev. David Schilling, a United Methodist and the coalition’s director of global corporate accountability. These investors have brought change, he said. For example, the board was among those that nudged General Motors into building 6,000 new homes for employees in Mexico through Habitat for Humanity and a government program, after years of pushing for worker rights. ' The work the United Methodist board has really advanced is to get companies to really take responsibility,' Schilling said. The board is continuing to push for worker rights and food safety. It is promoting corporate governance and diversity among companies such as Tyson and Bed, Bath & Beyond. The agency also filed its first water conservation resolution with Intel Corp., a company reportedly using hazardous chemicals in its manufacturing plants. The board manages pension benefits for more than 66,000 active and retired employees of The United Methodist Church and their dependents. It avoids investing in companies that derive revenue from pornography, alcohol, tobacco, gambling and armaments. The United Methodist Church is the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with 8.3 million members. It has another 1.5 million members in Africa, Asia and Europe. | 
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