Campaign will communicate the benefits of responsible investing and push back against the coordinated effort to ban sustainable investment practices
Washington, D.C. – Today, Unlocking America’s Future is launching an eight-figure campaign to protect the right to engage in responsible investment – a prudent long-term strategy that incorporates climate and other sustainability considerations into business and investor decision-making – and to strike back against well-funded attacks targeting American businesses, investors, and consumers engaging in the practice.
Over the last few years, special interests and corporate polluters have colluded with extreme politicians to intimidate, distort, and, in many states, ban responsible investment. The result: long-term damage to the U.S. economy.
Unlocking America’s Future will highlight the economic harm posed to workers, families, businesses, and the environment by these coordinated attacks, and show how pro-responsible investment policies put more money in consumers’ pockets, boost America’s competitiveness with China, and protect clean air and drinking water for all Americans.
- 60% of Fortune 500 CEOs reported that by focusing on climate change they expect to “open up new markets” and more than half said that it would “improve relations with shareholders.”
- The Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing found that “funds incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria can potentially provide financial returns in-line, if not better than traditional funds, and with less downside risk.”
The campaign will show that American businesses and people deserve the right to invest freely, without interference from politicians and special interests that are pushing an agenda out of step with the American public. Poll after poll has shown that attacks on responsible investing are deeply unpopular, in part due to significant harm posed to the economy. Only 8%of Americans think investigating how U.S. companies spend money on ESG initiatives should be a priority for Congress. Yet, a large majority of Americans—83%—say they trust companies more than politicians when deciding whether they agree with a company’s stance on an issue.
Unlocking America’s Future will use this public support to hold opponents of responsible investing accountable and will fight bad legislation in the states. The campaign will engage in the following tactics to bolster its efforts:
- Rapid response, targeting real-time developments at the state and federal levels and among donors and corporations, including original research;
- Message briefings, providing federal and state-level leaders and advocates with targeted messaging and counters that expose gaps and factual inconsistencies related to anti-ESG arguments;
- A multi-million dollar paid media campaign, focusing on grassroots and grasstops audiences;
- Shared content generation, leveraging leading and emerging techniques that maximize platform UX;
- Social media engagement, reaching influential, engaged, and potential activists.
To speak with an Unlocking America’s Future spokesperson or to join our press list, please email us at press@unlockingamericasfuture.org.
