Vanguard S.O.S. Campaign Launch Culminates with Protests on Two Continents; Vanguard Fails to Respond (Meaningfully)

Last week, on Wednesday, April 20, Vanguard S.O.S., a global climate campaign made up of civil society organizations, finance experts, grassroots groups, and climate activists, was officially launched.

The network’s first official action was to send a letter signed by over 100 organizations representing more than 6 million people to Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley. The letter called on the finance giant to implement an ambitious series of solutions to address the detrimental impacts of the firm’s investments, and urged Mr. Buckley to enact the visionary financial leadership needed to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.

Throughout the week, thousands of people joined the effort to tell Vanguard to fix its climate problem. Over 2,000 people — close to 40% of whom are Vanguard customers — sent faxes to the asset manager, intentionally using the outdated technology to draw a comparison to Vanguard’s outdated investment strategy. Thousands more signed a Sierra Club petition or joined FixMyFunds, an effort to help investors take control of their investment power and shift the economy toward a sustainable future.

And climate activists didn’t stop there. Over a hundred people attended ACRE’s webinar on Vanguard’s Empty Promises while hundreds more took to the streets in climate protests in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and England at Vanguard offices.

At Vanguard’s U.K. headquarters in Central London, activists put up parody Vanguard ads on nearby bus stops while protesters with Extinction Rebellion played on the corporation’s ship logo with a Titanic-themed protest.

A red phone booth is positioned on a sidewalk in downtown London's financial district. A man dressed in khakis and a navy sweater walks by, his back facing the camera. On the street next to the phone booth, a cyclist is riding by. On the phone booth is a poster calling out Vanguard which reads "V stands for climate change. We haven't changed much since 1975. But the climate has, thanks to our steadfast investments in coal, oil, and gas." There are two happy looking people pictured on the poster each making V shapes with their first two fingers, mimicking a Vanguard marketing campaign.

Two demonstrators dressed in suits sit on lawn chairs looking relaxed, holding champagne flutes, wearing plastic oil barrels on their heads with silly-looking faces painted on them. One of them is holding his middle finger up to the camera. They sit on a public street in London next to other demonstrators holding a large sign that reads "Vanguard: Don't Sink Our Future". Additional protest signs are plastered to the ground.

A group of about 50 demonstrators stand in front of a Chase bank location. The sun is out and the sky is blue. In the front row, several hold a large banner that reads "Vanguard invests in climate destruction." Another large banner reads "Chase Bank stop funding fossil fuels." Other protestors hold various red and white signs with messages urging Vanguard to change course on climate.

Two demonstrators lounge in deck chairs holding chalkboards that read "Tim Buckley CEO + Chair Vanguard" and "Sean Hegarty MD Europe." The two demonstrators also wear facemasks of each Tim Buckley and Sean Hegarty. The person representing Hegarty holds a cigar. In the background, part of a painting depicting the Titanic on a huge cloth banner is visible

Members of Extinction Rebellion’s families group made speeches while holding pictures of their children. Lucy Porter, a former teacher from Leeds said, “I’ve traveled to London to be here today because Vanguard is responsible for funding some of the most destructive projects in the world. The U.N. Secretary-General said we’re at code red for humanity and that the alarm bells are deafening. Vanguard is ensuring a climate catastrophe by putting profits before people and pouring billions into projects already damaging the most vulnerable communities around the globe. I’m scared for the future, and I’m even more terrified for those experiencing the consequences of Vanguard’s investments right now.”

At Vanguard’s global headquarters in Pennsylvania, over 150 people from groups including EQAT, Third Act, Power, Dayenu Drexel, Dayenu Penn, XR Philly, 350 Philly, Sierra Club PA, and Elders Action Network came together on Earth Day to protest Vanguard’s funding of climate destruction.

A photo of the Vanguard’s Big Climate Problem Walk protestors en route. In the foreground are four protestors. The woman on the left wears a red shirt reading “Vanguard invests in climate destruction” and waving a red flag. The woman on her right carries a red sign reading the same. The woman on the center-right also is wearing a red shirt and carrying a red sign reading “Vanguard invests in climate destruction” and holds a red flag with “people + planet” on it. The woman on the far right wears a green EQAT hat. In the background is a painted mural of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in front of a courthouse with other racial justice activists. — photo by Rachael Warriner

Four protestors lie in the road, blocking the driveway of Vanguard headquarters. In the background you can see the Vanguard sign in the median surrounded by yellow flowers. Three of the four protestors wear red shirts reading “Vanguard invests in climate destruction.” In the background more protestors are visible, holding signs. — photo by Rachael Warriner

A photo of Bishop Dwayne Royster from Power speaking into a microphone in front of a gathering of 50+ protestors. In the background is an inflatable of Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley in a ship that's wreathed in painted flames, clutching a red steering wheel with S.O.S. on the front. At the front of the crowd, two elderly protestors hold a red banner that reads “Vanguard stop investing in climate destruction” with an illustration of two smokestacks on the left. Other protestors hold signs reading “don’t torch earth for your retirement” and “the climate crisis is here” — photo by Rachael Warriner

A gathering of 50+ protestors. In the background is an inflatable of Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley in a ship that's wreathed in painted flames, clutching a red steering wheel with S.O.S. on the front. At the front, two elderly protestors hold a red banner that reads “Vanguard stop investing in climate destruction” with an illustration of two smokestacks on the left. Other protestors hold signs reading "It's time to cut carbon" and "Vanguard S.O.S.” and “Don’t torch Earth for your retirement.” — photo by Rachael Warriner

At that Earth Day demonstration — the culmination of a 5-day, 40-mile walk protesting Vanguard — Eileen Flanagan, EQAT’s campaign director said, “Pennsylvanians who live and breathe the pollution from these companies across our region are already suffering enough, and scientists agree we are in a climate emergency. Vanguard is running out of time. Vanguard must commit to decarbonize its entire portfolio by pushing the highest carbon emitters to design and implement a just plan to align their business model to a 1.5 degree future.”

In addition to all the demonstrations against Vanguard last week, Reclaim Finance published a new report scoring asset managers’ climate credentials that ranked Vanguard a 0 out of 30.

So — how did Vanguard respond to all this?

Several news publications reached out to Vanguard for comment on the protests and the new campaign. Multiple spokespeople from Vanguard parroted the same line to the media — “Vanguard considers climate change to be a fundamental risk to many companies and their shareholders’ long-term financial success.”

Unfortunately for Vanguard’s customers and for our changing climate, considering climate change a fundamental risk and implementing concrete actions that actually deal with the size and consequences of that risk are two entirely different things. The latter is what is required of the firm to meet the urgency of the moment, and specific solutions were included in the letter delivered to Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley. He — or anyone from Vanguard for that matter — still has yet to reply.

In a departure from its characteristic silence on climate, Vanguard published a blog post on its website a mere 14 hours after the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign launch. Coincidence?

However convenient the timing, the content is not. The post is a textbook example of repackaging stale and insufficient statements on climate change. It linked to a Vanguard research paper that evaluated the economic impacts of climate change in several warming scenarios, but failed to include the urgent steps necessary for Vanguard to meet the scale of the crisis.

Then, this Monday, Vanguard published a Q&A with its global head of investment stewardship, John Galloway, on its website. Simply restating much of what was in the blog post, the Q&A again contained no new information or commitments by the asset manager.

Clearly, Vanguard is feeling the pressure, as evidenced by the scramble to quietly get climate-related content on its website, but this response is totally insufficient and woefully out of step with the times. Posting a few blogs and papers may have been considered climate leadership in 2010, but today it amounts to Vanguard trying to play catch-up with baby steps.

So far, Vanguard has been trying to downplay its role in the climate crisis and shirk the responsibility it has to its customers and the world to be an active part of the solution. But Vanguard S.O.S. is not going to let the firm get away with that. Together with Vanguard’s customers and employees, this campaign will push the asset manager to chart a new course away from climate catastrophe and toward truly sustainable investing.

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