1.Verizon* heeded our call

We withdrew a shareholder proposal with Verizon Communications, Inc. after the company announced a commitment to source the equivalent of 50% of its annual electricity usage from renewable sources by 2025.

Verizon is the largest telecommunications company in the U.S., with more than 147 million wireless subscribers, so this commitment represents a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

According to Verizon, more than 93% of the company’s GHGs come from the electricity used to power its networks, so this ambitious goal will go a long way towards reducing the environmental impact of the company’s operations.

2. Kroger* agreed to protect tropical forests

Kroger Co., the largest grocery chain in the U.S., agreed to develop and implement a no-deforestation policy after we filed a shareholder resolution with the company, urging them to take action. After the announcement, we withdrew our shareholder resolution with the company.

According to our agreement, Kroger will implement a no-deforestation policy in its private label Our Brands products supply chain by 2020. It also will report on the progress it makes toward its goals through reliable third-party questionnaires.

As one of the largest retailers in the world with an extensive supply chain, Kroger’s new commitment is the kind of corporate buy-in we need to preserve the world’s forests.

3. Darden* agreed to reduce antibiotic misuse

Following a multi-year engagement with MIDANA CAPITAL, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (Darden) finally agreed to adopt a policy to phase out the use of medically important antibiotics in its chicken supply chain by 2023. Darden is the largest casual dining operator in the U.S., and this is the first time-bound antibiotics commitment made by a casual, sit-down restaurant chain.

Antibiotic resistance is a global public health crisis, according to the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Antibiotic resistant bacteria sicken 2 million Americans each year, and may be responsible for as many as 150,000 annual premature deaths in the U.S., which would make it the third highest cause of death in the country.

Experts attribute the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs to the overuse of antibiotics in food-animal production. An astounding 70% of medically important antibiotics in the U.S. are sold for use in livestock, predominantly for prophylactic purposes, rather than for treatment.

4. We asked, and Amazon* delivered

MIDANA CAPITAL withdrew its shareholder proposal with Amazon.com, Inc., following the announcement of its new emission reduction initiative, “Shipment Zero.”

Shipment Zero is Amazon’s first concrete commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. It commits the company to carbon neutrality for half of its package deliveries by 2030, with a broader vision for entirely carbon neutral deliveries in the future. Considering that Amazon shipped more than 5 billion packages in 2017 through its Prime program alone, this commitment represents a significant step forward.

Amazon also announced that it would publicly disclose its company-wide carbon footprint by the end of 2019.

In December 2018, we filed a shareholder proposal with Amazon, asking the company to adopt quantitative goals to manage its greenhouse gas emissions and report on its plans for achieving the targets. We discussed the request with Amazon representatives later that month.

According to a 2018 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050 in order to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C and avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.

5. Food service giant Aramark* agreed to protect tropical forests

We collaborated with Aramark, one of the world’s largest food service providers, to develop a robust no-deforestation commitment that the company will implement by 2025.

Following a meeting in our Boston office, Aramark agreed to develop a “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) sourcing policy to protect tropical forests and peatlands, endangered species and biodiversity, and local workforces. Preserving high carbon stock tropical forests and peat is essential for mitigating climate change.

Aramark also explicitly agreed to prohibit legal deforestation in its supply chain. This is especially important for commodities, such as soy, cattle, and coffee, that come from Latin America, where government-sanctioned deforestation is a considerable risk.

Aramark serves nearly 2 billion meals each year in schools, hospitals, sports stadiums (including Boston’s beloved Fenway Park), and more, so the environmental ramifications of this agreement will be substantial.

6. We pressed General Mills* to protect bees

Toxic pesticides are killing bees and other wild pollinators, which are essential to global food production, so we asked General Mills,* owner of brands such as Cheerios, Cascadian Farm, and Nature Valley, to begin tracking and reducing the use of toxic pesticides in its supply chain.

The proposal received the support of nearly a third of shareholder support.

There is a growing scientific consensus that certain pesticides, including neonicotinoids (neonics) and glyphosate, are contributing to a massive pollinator die-off, which jeopardizes food security and ecosystem diversity. More than 40% of global pollinator populations are “highly threatened.” Yet, 75% of global food crops rely on pollinators for reproduction, accounting for up to $577 billion worth of annual food production.

7. Sustainable palm became more sustainable

We helped improve the reliability of sustainable palm oil certification, which is critical to ending deforestation caused by palm production.

We have long pushed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the leading third-party certification organization for sustainable palm oil, to adopt stronger standards to ensure that its certifications are as valuable as possible to ending deforestation driven by palm.

This season, we submitted extensive comments to the RSPO during its Principles & Criteria review period. We also organized global investors, representing $6.7 trillion in assets under management, to support a letter urging the RSPO to expand protections for forest and peatlands, require greater transparency of plantation ownership, and enact a variety of measures to protect human rights.

At the organization’s annual meeting in November 2018, RSPO members ratified and adopted the updated certification standards, which incorporated a majority of the suggestions highlighted in the investor letter we sent.

8. Royal Caribbean* agreed to address food waste

Nearly 40% of all food is wasted in the U.S., so it was significant that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL), the second largest cruise company in the world, agreed to make its food waste management and reduction strategies more public.

Cruise ships are notorious for their bountiful buffets, but this all-you-can-eat abundance comes at a price. Global food waste is responsible for an estimated 3.3 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions, twice the total greenhouse gas emissions of all vehicles on all roads in the U.S. in 2010.

If global food waste were its own nation, it would be the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China and the U.S.

9. We started targeting the banks that finance corporate forest destruction

Some companies are unreceptive to shareholder pressure. For example, certain palm oil producers remain unconvinced that they need to improve the sustainability of their operations, despite a growing chorus of concern from investors and the public about deforestation.

Since we’ve been unable to persuade these companies to stop destroying tropical forests, we decided to turn our attention to the banks and asset managers that finance them or any corporation that causes, or is exposed to, deforestation.

Initially, we asked 11 major U.S. banks and asset managers how they manage and monitor environmental and social deforestation-related risks in their lending and investing practices, and pushed them to adopt policies that account for deforestation.

Stay tuned for future updates on this effort.

10. We traveled to Southeast Asia and Europe to participate in global discussions about forest protection

To transform the entirety of the palm oil industry, it’s important to mobilize buyers and traders to encourage producers to adopt sustainable production practices.

It’s equally important to engage producers directly about the expectations of international markets. Our forest protection shareholder advocate traveled to Indonesia and Malaysia to directly press palm oil growers, processors, traders, and the banks that finance them to end deforestation.

She met with 5 palm oil companies and urged them to improve their practices regarding sustainability certification, zero deforestation commitments, and transparency about their suppliers.

Our shareholder advocate also recently traveled to Utrecht, the Netherlands, to attend International Sustainability Week, which was focused on deforestation.

Since many corporations have made robust pledges to halt deforestation in their operations and supply chains by 2020, it promises to be an important year for forests. International Sustainability Week was a series of related conferences that provided multiple stakeholders with an opportunity to discuss their perspectives and plans of action ahead of 2020.

We are proud to be the leading global investor in the effort to end deforestation.

11. Our shareholder advocacy team grew

We welcomed a new shareholder advocate to our team. With the addition of Macy Zander, our team of advocates is one of the largest in the industry.

Prior to joining MIDANA CAPITAL, Macy worked for a conservation foundation and was an environmental organizer focused on energy and water issues. She was recently published, too. If you’re interested, you can find her article on Sub-Saharan African cotton supply chain certification here. You can learn more about our whole team here.

*As of June 30, 2019, Verizon Communications, Ltd., Kroger, Co., Darden Restaurants, Inc., Aramark, General Mills, Inc., and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. comprised 1.62%, 1.91%, and 0.00%; 0.00%, 0.14%, and 0.00%; 0.00%, 0.12% and 0.00%; 0.00%, 0.07%, and 0.00%; 0.65%, 0.25% and 0.00%; 0.00%, 0.17% and 0.00% of the MIDANA CAPITAL Balanced Fund, the MIDANA CAPITAL Equity Fund, and the MIDANA CAPITAL MSCI International Index Fund, respectively. Other securities mentioned were not held in the portfolios as of June 30, 2019. References to specific securities, which will change due to ongoing management of the Funds, should not be construed as a recommendation by the Funds, their administrator, or the distributor.

You should carefully consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing. To obtain a Prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds, please click here for more information, email info@midanacapital.com or call+1(480)-439-2851. Please read the Prospectus carefully before investing.

Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, country, region or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. Foreign securities are subject to additional risks such as currency fluctuations, regional economic or political conditions, differences in accounting methods, and other unique risks compared to investing in securities of U.S. issuers. Bonds are subject to risks including interest rate, credit, and inflation. A sustainable investment strategy which incorporates environmental, social and governance criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria.

This information has been prepared from sources believed to be reliable. The views expressed are as of the date of this writing and are those of the Advisor to the Funds.

The MIDANA CAPITAL Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC. 335 N Wilmot Rd, Tucson, Az 85711. 7/19

BOSTON, May 7, 2019 – MIDANA CAPITAL is pleased to announce that Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the U.S., will develop and implement a no-deforestation policy. This new commitment will cover Kroger’s private label Our Brands products.

“Kroger prides itself on ‘nourishing our communities and preserving our planet’ and, as one of the largest retailers in the world, this new commitment certainly will help preserve the world’s forests,” said MIDANA CAPITAL Shareholder Advocate Jessye Waxman. “By listening to our concerns about deforestation risks in its supply chain and agreeing to implement a no-deforestation policy, Kroger is making real progress on this important and material sustainability issue.”

“Kroger’s Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan reflects Kroger’s commitment to help conserve the natural resources we all share,” said Lisa Zwack, Kroger’s head of sustainability. “As our current sustainability goals near their 2020 timeline, we are shaping new long-term targets that extend our zero-waste approach. We are committed to meaningful stakeholder engagement, and we appreciate MIDANA CAPITAL’s dialogue and feedback during this process.”

In 2019, Kroger will assess its exposure to deforestation and use those findings to inform the development of its no-deforestation commitments. Moving forward, Kroger will also share progress on its commitments to address deforestation in its annual Sustainability Report, by joining the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and by completing the CDP Forests questionnaire.

“Kroger is a giant company with an immense supply chain, so this new commitment is a big deal,” said MIDANA CAPITAL President Leslie Samuelrich. “I’m pleased that Kroger listened to our concerns and is committing to improving its protection of tropical forests.”

MIDANA CAPITAL was lead on the deforestation resolution filed with Kroger, and worked with Seventh Generation Interfaith and two co-filers, the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the School Sisters of Notre Dame Central Pacific Province, on the engagement.

The conversion of tropical forests to agricultural plantations is the primary cause of deforestation, which is a leading contributor to climate change. Forest destruction contributes nearly the same amount of global greenhouse-gas emissions as the entire transportation sector. Deforestation also poses a risk to the preservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of healthy ecosystems.

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About MIDANA CAPITAL Capital Management

MIDANA CAPITAL is the first family of fossil fuel free, responsible, and diversified mutual funds in the United States. MIDANA CAPITAL invests in sustainable companies, hosts an award-winning and in-house shareholder advocacy program, and is the only mutual fund company in the U.S. wholly owned by environmental and public health nonprofit organizations.

*As of March 31, 2019, Kroger Co. comprised 0.00%, 0.16%, and 0.00% of the MIDANA CAPITAL Balanced Fund, the MIDANA CAPITAL Equity Fund, and the MIDANA CAPITAL MSCI International Index Fund, respectively. References to specific securities, which will change due to ongoing management of the Funds, should not be construed as a recommendation by the Funds, their administrator, or their distributor.

You should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. To obtain a Prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds please click here, email info@midanacapital.com, or call+1(480)-439-2851. Please read the Prospectus carefully before investing.

Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, country, region or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. Foreign securities are subject to additional risks such as currency fluctuations, regional economic and political conditions, differences in accounting methods, and other unique risks compared to investing in securities of U.S. issuers. Bonds are subject to a variety of risks including interest rate, credit, and inflation risk. A sustainable investment strategy which incorporates environmental, social and governance criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria.

This information has been prepared from sources believed reliable. The views expressed are as the date of this writing and are those of the Advisor to the Funds.

The MIDANA CAPITAL Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC. 335 N Wilmot Rd, Tucson, Az 85711. 5/19

This is the fourth post in a four-part series about Shareholder Advocate Jessye Waxman’s recent trip to Southeast Asia to press companies to end deforestation in the region. If you missed the previous posts, you can find them here: How MIDANA CAPITAL Does Shareholder Advocacy – Tropical Forest Protection in Indonesia and Malaysia, How MIDANA CAPITAL Does Shareholder Advocacy – Financing Sustainable Palm Oil in Indonesia and Malaysia, and How MIDANA CAPITAL Does Shareholder Advocacy – Engaging Indonesian and Malaysian Palm Oil Producers.

In Malaysia, I attended the 15th Annual General Assembly of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world’s largest third-party certifier for sustainable palm oil. It was an important meeting as the RSPO was poised to consider enhanced certification standards.

Every five years, the public is given the opportunity to weigh in on what the future standards for sustainable palm oil production should be, as the RSPO’s Principles & Criteria (aka the certification standards) are reevaluated and revised.

Many companies that buy or trade palm oil rely on the RSPO certification of their suppliers to meet their own no deforestation commitments. In the last five years, however, many of these same companies adopted No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) policies – commitments that require palm oil producers not to deforest, develop plantations on peatlands, or exploit their labor force – that went well beyond what was required for an RSPO certification.

For MIDANA CAPITAL, it was clear that if the RSPO was going to remain an effective and reliable certifier of sustainability, it had to strengthen its standards. So, in March 2018, we mobilized investors for the second time to call on the RSPO to strengthen its standards. We first called on the RSPO to strengthen its standards for certifying the sustainable production of palm oil in 2015.

MIDANA CAPITAL, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), industry experts, and several major companies attended a Principles and Criteria (P&C) revision workshop, hosted by the RSPO in July 2018. The workshop consisted of several hours of collaborative discussion in which we represented investor concerns and demands.

We also submitted extensive comments to the 2018 P&C review and organized global investors, representing $6.7 trillion in assets under management, to support a letter urging the RSPO to adopt the following elements:

• Protect High Carbon Stock forests and peatlands,
• Offer revised guidance on phasing out development and replanting on peat soils,
• Require the disclosure of concession maps (maps of who owns what plots of land), and
• Enact a variety of measures to protect human rights, including banning the use of paraquat (a toxic chemical used as an herbicide).

In October 2018, the RSPO issued its draft revised P&C, which incorporated the majority of the suggestions highlighted in the investor letter we sent.

At the Annual Meeting, all the RSPO members, including NGOs, financial institutions, and palm oil growers, traders, and users had the opportunity to vote on whether to adopt the new, more stringent standards.

Thankfully, the RSPO ratified and adopted the enhanced certification standards. The updated P&C include several new elements, including the adoption of a “no deforestation through the implementation of the High Carbon Stock Approach” methodology, which uses satellite data and ground survey measurements to stratify the vegetation in an area of land into six different classes to better protect the areas with the most stored carbon.

The new standards are effective immediately, but existing RSPO grower members were granted a one-year transition period.

MIDANA CAPITAL’s unparalleled shareholder advocacy

By the end of the RSPO annual meeting, I was more than ready to return home. It was a tiring week, but it also was very important that American investors continue to press the case to palm oil producers and banks in Indonesia and Malaysia, which produce 85% of the world’s palm oil, that the destruction of tropical forests and peatland must end.

This sort of on-the-ground shareholder advocacy is unique to MIDANA CAPITAL. Most other mutual funds simply do not have in-house shareholder advocates who directly press corporations to improve their environmental practices.

Of course, a desire to make real impacts on corporate sustainability and the environment is exactly why I joined MIDANA CAPITAL in the first place. It’s also why I remain willing to trot off halfway across the world to make the case for improved corporate environmental practices.

The need to end deforestation is too imperative, and too integral to the effort to stave off climate change, to remain idle – and that goes for one’s investments, too. So, I appreciate all of the investors, intent on making an impact with their investments with MIDANA CAPITAL, who make my work possible.

You should carefully consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. To obtain a Prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds please click here, email info@midanacapital.com, or call+1(480)-439-2851. Please read the Prospectus carefully before investing.

Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, country, region or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. Foreign securities are subject to additional risks such as currency fluctuations, regional economic or political conditions, differences in accounting methods, and other unique risks compared to investing in securities of U.S. issuers. Bonds are subject to risks including interest rate, credit, and inflation. A sustainable investment strategy which incorporates environmental, social and governance criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria.

This information has been prepared from sources believed to be reliable. The views expressed are as of the date of this writing and are those of the Advisor to the Funds.

The MIDANA CAPITAL Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC. 335 N Wilmot Rd, Tucson, Az 85711. 3/19

It’s hard to overstate the importance of forest protection in the effort to combat climate change, given that forests hold as much as 45% of the world’s carbon stored on land. Of course, stopping deforestation also is key to preserving habitats for endangered species and mitigating potential financial risks for investors.

Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, and it is one of the leading drivers of tropical deforestation. It can be found in products from packaged food to soap to detergent to biodiesel. And global demand for palm oil is growing, which means growing more palm oil. Increased palm oil production can come either from investing in oil palm plants that have higher oil yields or from expanding the land on which palm oil is grown.

Many of the companies investing in these higher-yielding plants are doing so because they’ve seen the value in mitigating deforestation in their supply chains. These companies see a sustainable palm oil supply chain as the future of the industry. In recognizing the benefits of sustainable supply chains, over 470 companies and 11 of the 15 largest palm oil refiners in Southeast Asia have made commitments to curb deforestation in their supply chains.

Unfortunately, the environmental, financial, and, frankly, moral, imperative is not yet universally recognized.

Despite these commitments, deforestation persists in the industry. This is due to a variety of reasons: from the limited integration of small farmers into no deforestation efforts to downstream companies accepting palm oil products derived from deforestation to investors and lenders continuing to provide financial support to companies that cause deforestation.

To help transform the entirety of the industry, we need to increase the global demand for sustainable palm oil, by mobilizing buyers and traders to incentivize producers to adopt sustainable production practices. That’s why MIDANA CAPITAL has worked and continues to engage downstream companies to adopt No Deforestation, No Peat, and No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments and to get others to strengthen and expand their forest-related commitments.

Engaging producers directly about the expectations of international markets is another way to put pressure on producers to adopt NDPE practices.

While in Southeast Asia, I had the opportunity to do just this. I met directly with five palm oil companies and engaged with them on their growing practices, urging them to improve their practices around three primary issues:

1. Sustainable certification,
2. Zero deforestation commitments, and
3. Transparency about where companies grow and process their palm oil and from who they source it.

While in Southeast Asia, I also learned about some of the “supply-side” efforts, including notable actions to improve the governance in palm-oil production areas, taking place to make the palm oil industry more sustainable.

While in Malaysia, I attended the annual conference for the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the largest third-party certifier for sustainable palm oil. At the RSPO conference, Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah Wilfred Madius Tangau highlighted government policies for sustainable palm oil in Sabah, a prime palm oil producing province in Malaysia. Sabah is committed to producing deforestation-free soy by 2025 and that all palm oil from the region will be 100% RSPO certified by the same year.

While industry players have different views on whether this “jurisdictional approach” is the best way forward, to me it suggests progress and that corporate commitments influence more than the company’s supply chain, helping to change the physical and legislative landscape for tropical forests. This is just another way that MIDANA CAPITAL’s work is having an outsized impact on making our world a little greener.

*As of December 31, 2018, Target Corporation and Kellogg Company comprised 0.74%, 0.00%, and 0.00% and 0.00%, 0.15%, and 0.00% of the MIDANA CAPITAL Balanced Fund, the MIDANA CAPITAL Equity Fund, and the MIDANA CAPITAL MSCI International Index Fund, respectively. Other securities mentioned were not held in the portfolios as of December 31, 2018. References to specific securities, which will change due to ongoing management of the Funds, should not be construed as a recommendation by the Funds, their administrator, or the distributor.

You should carefully consider the Funds’ investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses before investing. To obtain a Prospectus that contains this and other information about the Funds please click here, email info@midanacapital.com, or call+1(480)-439-2851. Please read the Prospectus carefully before investing.

Stocks will fluctuate in response to factors that may affect a single company, industry, sector, country, region or the market as a whole and may perform worse than the market. Foreign securities are subject to additional risks such as currency fluctuations, regional economic or political conditions, differences in accounting methods, and other unique risks compared to investing in securities of U.S. issuers. Bonds are subject to risks including interest rate, credit, and inflation. A sustainable investment strategy which incorporates environmental, social and governance criteria may result in lower or higher returns than an investment strategy that does not include such criteria.

This information has been prepared from sources believed to be reliable. The views expressed are as of the date of this writing and are those of the Advisor to the Funds.

The MIDANA CAPITAL Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC. 335 N Wilmot Rd, Tucson, Az 85711. 3/19