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Building socially responsible investment portfolios that help create a healthy planet and a just society.

*Posts on this page should not be construed as investment advice.

10/08/2026

Two shoppers can be shown different prices for the same item, based on what a company knows about each of them: where they live, the device they use, even how they move a mouse across a product page. The FTC calls this personalized pricing. We use the term surveillance pricing, because instead of a base cost of goods, each price is built from data collected about the shopper: information gathered across apps, websites, loyalty programs, and data brokers, often combined by outside vendors into profiles that estimate what each shopper will pay. Retailers from grocers to apparel brands use it, often through third-party data vendors.

Zevin Asset Management, in collaboration with Open Mic, has submitted a comment letter to the Federal Trade Commission on its proposal to treat the practice as unfair or deceptive when companies don't disclose it. We support that step, but disclosure alone leaves the practice in place. As long-term investors in retail and e-commerce companies, we asked the Commission to go further and set limits on how companies may use personal data to set prices.

Location and browsing data can also stand in for race and income: A ProPublica investigation found a test-prep company quoting higher prices in ZIP codes with large Asian populations, and researchers found Chicago rideshare trips to predominantly nonwhite neighborhoods cost more. More recently, a 2025 Consumer Reports investigation found Instacart showing different shoppers' prices up to 23% apart for the same item, at the same store, at the same time.

Shoppers can't tell whether the price on a carton of eggs was set for them. Investors don’t have access either: pricing models often sit with outside vendors that companies do not disclose much in their reporting, leaving the risks invisible until they arrive as a fine or a lawsuit. And those risks are growing. Maryland and Connecticut have already restricted personal-data pricing for groceries, and Seattle's council has voted to ban it.

You can read and download our full comment letter at www.zevin.com/news-views/surveillance-pricing

10/07/2026

The SEC has proposed eliminating the rule that has given shareholders a way to bring concerns directly to company boards since 1942. Our Q3 Impact Update shares how we're working to defend it.

We also share our work to protect climate and workforce disclosures, challenge pricing based on shoppers' personal data in a comment letter to federal regulators, developed with Open MIC, and press a data center company on how its board manages community opposition in Atlanta.

Read the full Q3 Impact Update:
https://www.zevin.com/news-views/q3-impact-update

09/23/2026

Home Depot's parking lots have Flock Safety cameras that share data with local law enforcement on standing access. Police can query the data anytime without triggering additional authorization.

What Home Depot didn't anticipate: federal immigration enforcement accessing that data through local police intermediaries. Audit logs captured 4,000+ immigration-related lookups.

Home Depot says it didn't authorize federal access. The problem: its governance model allowed it anyway. Standing access means the company can't control downstream use once data leaves its systems.

Surveillance technology creates real governance questions: Who decides how data gets used? What's the liability exposure? How does a company anticipate risk? As shareholders, we engage directly on these issues because they affect long-term business viability, regulatory exposure, and reputational risk.

09/22/2026

One of the mysteries of the commodity complex during the early days of the war in the Middle East was why crude oil prices had not risen even more? One partial explanation is that the U.S. and more than 20 other countries agreed in March to release portions of their strategic oil reserves to help offset the global supply disruption caused by the war.

However, there are limits to just how much oil the U.S. and other countries can release. The U.S. salt caverns where this oil is stockpiled can hold approximately 700 million barrels, and currently only 285 million barrels remain. At the current rate of drawdown, the U.S. is expected to fulfill its pledge to release 170 million barrels, by far the largest amount of any country, by the end of October. As the release of these reserves dries up, oil prices could face renewed upward pressure.

09/21/2026

Shareholder proposals are often discussed in terms of cost, distraction, or competing agendas. But that framing can overlook another function they can serve: giving investors a way to surface risks and ask boards difficult questions.

A recent analysis from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) offers some striking examples. It looks back at shareholder concerns raised at Meta, Johnson & Johnson, and Monsanto/Bayer around data privacy, child safety, product safety, and glyphosate, years before significant litigation, settlements, or regulatory action related to those same areas.

We can't know what would have happened had companies responded differently. But the examples raise an important question: Shouldn't investors have a mechanism to raise potential risks before they become more costly?

That question is particularly relevant now, as the SEC has proposed rescinding Rule 14a-8, the federal framework governing the inclusion of qualifying shareholder proposals in company proxy materials.

ICCR's analysis is worth reading: https://bit.ly/4Ax2Fa3

09/16/2026

Our Zevin team, together with some of our clients, spent an afternoon at Community Servings in Jamaica Plain, prepping produce, portioning meals, and packing delivery bags.

Community Servings delivers more than a million medically tailored meals per year to people managing critical or chronic illness and nutrition insecurity. We saw an operation that runs with precision and integrates volunteers into its workflow without skipping a beat. Clear systems, people who know exactly what they’re doing, and a great playlist in the background.

It was a great afternoon of working side by side, catching up outside office and contributing to an organization doing important work in our community. Thanks to the Community Servings team for welcoming us, and to our clients who joined us!

09/04/2026

The first Friday of every month is when the U.S. payroll numbers are released. Today’s report showed a surprisingly large increase in payrolls and a seemingly healthy, low unemployment rate. But are there signs of weakness simmering beneath the headline numbers?

Part of the reason the unemployment rate remains so low is the steep downward trend in labor-force participation. As discouraged workers give up looking for jobs, they are no longer counted as unemployed, mechanically helping to keep the unemployment rate low. Related to this is the growing number of so-called long-term unemployed, or those who have been searching for work for 6 months or longer. More than a quarter of all unemployed Americans now fall into this category. Over the past 75 years, there have been only two periods with a more dire long-term unemployment situation, both occurring during severe economic crises (the Great Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.)

This is another example of the K-shaped economy. Those who already have jobs are doing OK, while those out of work face increasingly long job searches, during which both their savings and job skills are eroding.

It also underscores the difficult position facing the Federal Reserve. On one hand, inflation remains stubbornly elevated, arguing for rate hikes. On the other hand, these labor-market indicators point to a potential stealth labor market crisis, arguing for lower interest rates. The Fed is being forced to choose between fighting persistent inflation and responding to a labor market that appears far weaker beneath the surface than the headline unemployment rate suggests.

09/03/2026

AI is reshaping the investment landscape, but understanding the economics starts with the basics.

What are tokens? Why do they matter? And what could falling token costs mean for companies building, powering and using AI?

In our latest piece “The Token Economy” we introduce the economics behind AI tokens and the key questions we’re watching as the market evolves. With roughly a third of the S&P 500 exposed to the AI ecosystem, these are questions that matter beyond the technology sector.

https://bit.ly/4dkBapY

08/24/2026

As AI moves from simple chat prompts to reasoning models and autonomous agents, the computing work behind each task can rise sharply and so can the cost. Bigger jobs. Bigger bills.

At the same time, competition is pushing the industry toward a new frontier: not just what an AI model can do, but how efficiently and cheaply it can do it.

We think price competition in tokens is building, and the effects will hit some players much harder than others. In our latest Our Stance, Senior Equity Analyst Richard Shih, CFA, looks at the emerging token economy and what we're watching as investors.

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4hSkJo2

08/20/2026

International student enrollment in the U.S. was down 20% since last academic year.

When talent moves, capital usually follows. It's one of the first places to watch when confidence shifts. The question for investors: Is this temporary or a sign that the U.S. is losing its edge as a destination for talent and capital?

This is a pattern we're tracking. The full picture, what it signals and what comes next, is in our latest investment update.

https://www.zevin.com/news-views/sell-america-buy-the-dips-investment-outlook

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http://www.zevin.com/

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