Climate Activists Arrested At PA Vanguard Headquarters

MALVERN, PA — Members of an environmental justice organization were arrested last week after entering the headquarters of financial company Vanguard and attempting to get a meeting with an executive.

The Earth Quaker Action Team says that eight of its climate activists were taken into custody by members of the Tredyffrin Township Police Department after representatives with Vanguard called to report the individuals were trespassing.

The individuals were not named.

The group said its members, along with members of Extinction Rebellion Philly, walked onto the Malvern headquarters of Vanguard on Sept. 21 to try and get a meeting with John Galloway, global head of investment stewardship, after what the activists said was a year-and-a-half of requests regarding meeting with representatives of the international campaign pressuring "Vanguard's tepid climate plans," according to a news release from Earth Quaker Action Team.

"When asked again for a meeting today, Vanguard had the activists arrested," EQAT says in a news release.

The advocacy group claims that Vanguard's investments do little to combat environmental racism and climate destruction experienced throughout the Delaware Valley.

"We know that as the largest investor in companies like Exxon and Chevron, Vanguard has major responsibility for pushing the fossil fuel industry away from climate destruction," Dana Robinson, a Vanguard customer and EQAT board member, said in a statement. "Instead, its voting record on shareholder resolutions shows it is not truly looking out for its own clients, let alone future generations."

Back in January, Patch reported on EQAT members holding a protest at the Covanta incinerator in Conshohocken, Montgomery County, claiming that the incinerator is detrimental to the surrounding environment.

Related: Climate Justice Activists Protest At Conshohocken Incinerator

In addition to the Conshohocken protest earlier this year, EQAT members also held a 40-mile walk this spring from Chester, Pa. in Delaware County along the Delaware River and out to Malvern, Chester County to raise awareness of what it says is the connection between Vanguard's investments and climate destruction.

Patch reached out to Vanguard to try and obtain comment about the arrests in the Malvern case, but a representative did not return an inquiry by press deadline.

In a blog post, however, Vanguard addressed the issue of climate change and how it relates to investments.

The company wrote that over the years, it has worked with various organizations to encourage "collaborative and constructive dialogue across our industry to safeguard long-term shareholder returns and encourage responsible action on climate change."

The company wrote that it believes it is doing its part to help combat climate change, through efforts such as using 100 percent renewable energy.

Vanguard also stated that it has participated in the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which is an organization it supported since 2017, and advocates for constructive climate-change disclosure practices that are aimed at helping investors understand the "material financial impacts of climate-related risks associated with the companies in which they invest," the company wrote in its blog post.

"Such disclosures are making climate change a more prominent consideration in the business and investment decisions that companies make," Vanguard wrote.

Vanguard is reportedly the world's second-largest asset manager.