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Al Gore May Not Be That 'Green' After All, Firm Charges

A Bay Area investment firm said today Apple Inc.'s board of directors which includes environmental champion Al Gore is apparently opposing shareholder proposals to become a more sustainable company.

Harrington Investments, Inc. (HII) has introduced a binding amendment to Apple's corporate bylaws to require sustainability as part of the Apple's corporate DNA. HII said the plan has been unanimously opposed by the firm's management and board of which Gore is a member.

Gore's office has declined to comment on what appears to be a hypocritical stance, said John Harrington, President and CEO of Napa-based Harrington Investments, a Napa-based socially responsible investment advisory firm "I certainly hope Mr. Gore comes to his senses and supports this promising corporate governance innovation to formally inject sustainability into the fiduciary responsibility of directors," added Harrington.

Over the past year, Apple has struggled to respond to a stream of high profile complaints from environmental advocates.

The Harrington proposal is a binding bylaw amendment that would authorize creation of a Board Committee on Sustainability. The committee could study and make policy recommendations regarding how Apple is anticipating and reacting to issues such as global climate change, resource shortages, and biodiversity loss.

"The concept underlying this resolution is to strengthen the board's mandate to consider strategic risks and opportunities related to sustainability that are generally very hard for day-to-day management to adequately address," said Harrington.

Harrington Investments believes that difficulty in stemming environmental and social liabilities is symptomatic of an underlying failure of corporate governance, and heightened board of director fiduciary responsibility is one possible remedy.

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com