IDACORP Shareholder Activists Receive Climate Advocacy Award

The investor activist group that spearheaded a stunning Idaho Power shareholder resolution on climate change last year was awarded the 2009 NGO Activist award by the Climate Change Business Journal last week.

The Journal, a prominent business newsletter for the climate change industry, announced the climate action winners at the 2010 Environmental Industry Summit in Coronado, Calif. A full list of the award recipients in various sectors can be found at www.climatechangebusiness.com

As You Sow of San Francisco coordinated the shareholder resolution with Trillium Asset Management and Calvert Asset Management. The resolution was filed by Kiki Tidwell, an influential clean energy advocate in Ketchum.

“This record-breaking vote is a huge victory for investors everywhere who want their companies to do more to address climate change,” said Michael Passoff, associate director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program at As You Sow. “A majority vote is the clearest sign that investors won’t accept business as usual.”

IDACORP management urged shareholders to reject the measure, but it passed with 51 percent of the vote. Passoff said the vote was the first shareholder resolution ever to win a majority on a climate change resolution. This resolution said the company needed to develop a plan to reduce its climate-changing carbon emissions by last September. In response, the company presented to its Board and the Board approved a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 10-15 percent by 2013.