Boston Common Asset Management (U.S.), on behalf of the Investors & Indigenous Peoples Working Group,  along with other investors, invite you to sign on to the Investor Submission to the Equator Principles Association (EPA) on its EP4 draft of the Equator Principles and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (available at http://news.bostoncommonasset.com/investor-submission-to-equator-principles-association-on-its-ep4-draft-and-rights-of-indigenous-peoples/).

The Investor Submission asks the Equator Principles Association to make certain revisions to its public review draft of the Equator Principles (EP4). The Investor Submission recommends that EP4 be strengthened to recognize that Indigenous Peoples have a fundamental right to provide or withhold their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and this right exists in all countries.

Boston Common submitted the new Investor Submission to the Equator Principles Association on the EPA’s August 23, 2019 deadline for written public comments. Several investors plan to follow up directly with several banks that are signatories to the Equator Principles.

We will accept signatories to the Investor Submission until October 11, 2019. This will help support investor engagement with the Equator banks directly and to demonstrate investor support for the Investor Submission before the EPA’s formal vote in this fall. You do not need to be an investor in any of the banks or financial institutions that are members of the Equator Principles Association to co-sign the new Investor Submission.

This 2019 Investor Submission builds on the 2017 Investor Statement to the Equator Principles Association related to Dakota Access Pipeline and the 2017 investor statement to the banks that financed the Dakota Access Pipeline*. Thirteen of the seventeen banks that provided project finance to the Dakota Access Pipeline were signatories to the Equator Principles, an environmental and social risk management framework utilized by ninety-seven banks or other financial institutions in thirty-seven countries.

This new 2019 Investor Submission requests the Equator Principles Association to make certain revisions to its public review draft of the Equator Principles (EP4). The Investor Submission recommends that EP4 be strengthened to recognize that Indigenous Peoples have a fundamental right to provide or withhold their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and this right exists in all countries.

If you would like to sign the submission, please complete the form below. Please provide name, title, organization, assets under management or advisement, contact name and contact email. Assets under management or advisement will be aggregated and kept confidential.

Contact Steven Heim, sheim@bostoncommonasset.com with any questions.

* As of April 22, 2017, over 160 investors with over $1.7 trillion asset under management signed the Investor Statement to the Banks Financing the Dakota Access Pipeline. For a full list of the signatories see http://news.bostoncommonasset.com/banks-dapl.