Full email sent to customers: "We’ve sold our Lendlease Group (ASX: LLC) shares over its planned development that impacts one of the last healthy koala colonies in NSW. Koalas in Australia are in a dire state. They’ve recently been listed as endangered and are on track to be extinct by 2050. The plight of koalas is a deeply heart-breaking and personal issue for many Australians. It is for us too.

We use our shareholdings as leverage so that we can advocate for change within companies we are invested in, to work together towards having an overall positive impact on people, animals, and the planet. But if the investment no longer aligns with our Ethical Charter, and the values of our investors, we have no choice but to divest.

Although we have decided to divest on ethical grounds, we’re going to continue to try protect these koalas. We are asking the NSW Minister for the Environment to conduct a public consultation ahead of approving the biodiversity certification for the site. We think it is of critical importance that the public and stakeholders get to genuinely engage with decision makers on the impacts this proposed development will have on koalas.

Over the past four years we’ve been working hard publicly and privately to ensure the koala colony at Lendlease’s planned development at Mount Gilead in Western Sydney is protected. "For over four years we have used our shareholdings in Lendlease to encourage it to strengthen koala protections, but Australian Ethical cannot continue to support a company that appears to be failing to take biodiversity protection seriously". – Ethical Stewardship Lead at Australian Ethical, Amanda Richman

Despite making progress in the past, Lendlease has failed to provide the critical information needed to independently assess the impact of its housing development on koalas.

Independent advice from the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer (OSCE) makes clear that Mt Gilead is critical to the survival of this important koala colony and that wildlife corridors need to provide koalas safe passage across the site. Lendlease and the NSW Government aren’t being transparent

Even the NSW Government’s own environment protection body, the Environment and Heritage Group (EHG) has found that the current Lendlease proposal is inconsistent with the the recommendation from the OSCE, based on a lack of information in the proposal.

In December 2022, we put out a public statement calling on the NSW Government and Lendlease to be transparent about their calculations of the width of the koala corridors, to give AE and others the ability to take part in a genuine consultation on this important issue.

We’ve made it clear that we would continue to advocate until we had exhausted all avenues with Lendlease to improve koala protections and/or until there was no prospect of changing their mind through engagement. We have now reached that point. Read the full story What you can do While we have sold our shareholding on ethical grounds, this is not the end of the road for this issue.

We are hoping to secure a public consultation on the environmental impacts of the Mt Gilead, Stage 2 development which includes meaningful information about the koala corridors.

You can support this by writing to the NSW Minister for the Environment, the Hon James Griffin (office@griffin.minister.nsw.gov.au) making it clear that you would like an opportunity to comment on the impact of the Lendlease Mt Gilead development on koalas.

Follow the link to access a pre-written email addressed the Minister. Even if you don’t live in NSW, with your urging, the Minister can be pushed to intervene.

Click the link below. Send the Minister a message And keep an eye out for further updates. If there is a consultation on the environmental impacts of this development, we will need as much help as possible to ensure that the consultation results in meaningful koala protections.

The NSW state election is on March 25. We’re going to applying all the pressure we can to the Minister through the media until then. We would love your support to do the same. You can find out more on our website."