Interfaith Power and Light is helping workers earn a fossil-free retirement
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- Published on September 15th, 2024
Interfaith Power & Light has partnered with ClientEarth, an environmental legal advocacy organization, to work together on a unique opportunity that people of faith have to help shift financial institutions away from investing in fossil fuel projects.
By Tiffany Hartung
Chief Strategy Officer for Interfaith Power & Light
American workers collectively invest trillions of dollars in their retirement funds, often through employer-sponsored 401(k) and 403(b) plans. These retirement plans, in turn, often invest heavily in fossil fuels. As people of faith and conscience, we are tasked with building a more just world – one that is in line with our moral values of protecting the most vulnerable among us and being faithful stewards of the Earth.
This leaves workers to choose between compromising their values (by investing in and profiting from harmful fossil fuel development) and compromising the security of their retirement. People of faith shouldn’t have to make that choice. Instead, faithful workers should have the right to opt into retirement funds whose investments do not violate their fundamental moral responsibilities.
ClientEarth has developed a novel legal strategy to empower faithful workers who seek to divest from fossil fuels in their employer-sponsored retirement plans. We need your help with this unique advocacy opportunity.
In 2023, the US Supreme Court (in the case of Groff v. DeJoy) expanded the range of accommodations employers must provide for employees under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Employers formerly could deny requests that imposed any burden on the company, now they must accommodate requests that do not impose “substantial” burdens. Workers can use this change in the law to request fossil-free retirement options as an accommodation under Title VII.
Such accommodation is not unduly burdensome because there are fossil-free retirement options that employers can easily make available. Adding a fossil-free option to a retirement plan menu can accommodate employees with moral objections to fossil fuel investments. Under Groff, ClientEarth’s legal team believes employers that provide 401(k) and 403(b) plans are legally required to offer fossil-free retirement options as accommodations if employees request them. Once added, any such menu options will be available to all employees of a given employer – moving the fossil-free investment needle for the entire company, not just one employee
Interfaith Power & Light has partnered with ClientEarth to bring this advocacy opportunity to people of faith. ClientEarth is assisting faithful employees on a pro-bono basis in making fossil-free option requests to their employer – including working with them to draft the requests, negotiating as needed with employers, and potentially filing complaints if employers fail to provide adequate accommodations. If you are interested in learning more about the project and potentially working with ClientEarth’s attorneys to make an accommodation request to your employer, please fill out this questionnaire to learn more and see if you could be a fit to help with this advocacy effort.
