The adage “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” is a sound argument for measuring and assessing climate risks, which cost the world over $313 billion in 2022 alone. Investors have expressed their resounding support, including more than 600 investors who signed the 2022 Global Investor Statement urging governments to address climate risks through mandatory disclosure.
Read more2023 Update on SEC Shareholder Proposal Rules and Guidelines
Recent efforts of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff to create a more objective and efficient process for handling shareholder proposals have borne fruit in 2023, resulting in a 30 percent reduction in company-filed challenges to shareholder proposals. Clearer guidelines from the Staff have made it possible for shareholders to draft more defensible proposals.
Read moreESG Data Helps Assess Value, Potential Returns and Manage Investment Risk
Institutional investors have been paying attention to environmental, social and governance risk factors long before it was “ESG.” Without fanfare or agenda, these long-term investors took notice of weak governance practices that led to corruption, friction with workforces that led to strikes and factories that spewed toxins into rivers leading to lawsuits from those who lived downstream.
Read moreRepublican Efforts to Limit ESG Investing are Anti-Capitalist
There is a cohort of elected officials in the United States presently engaged in an anti-capitalist crusade against free-market principles. No, they are not socialists. They are congressional Republicans, and they are attempting to prevent financial institutions from allocating capital in accordance with investor preferences and risk management principles. This attempted crackdown is purely ideological in nature — it is an exercise in political pressure to force a gross government overreach into U.S. capital markets.
Read moreThe Anti-ESG Shareholder Proponents
Shareholder proponents who oppose most of the ideas supported by ESG investors have been around for a long time, but in the last two years they have filed many more proposals and a few new players have emerged.
Read moreMajority Votes on Deforestation Put Pressure on Industry Laggards
Shareholder concern about deforestation speaks for itself. Four majority votes on Green Century proposals in the last three years – Bunge, 99 percent; Bloomin’ Brands, 76 percent; Procter & Gamble, 67.6 percent; and Home Depot, 64.6 percent – build upon dozens of no-deforestation agreements that shareholders have won and have helped curb climate change and preserve endangered species around the world.
Read morePetrochemical Companies' Unsustainable Production Policies Drive Plastic Pollution Crisis
Following strong votes last year, As You Sow is expanding engagement on plastics and petrochemicals for 2023. The plastic pollution crisis continues unabated, with 139 million tons of single-use plastic waste created in 2021, six million more tons than in 2019, according to a recent report by Minderoo Foundation. Optimism is rising for a global treaty on plastics within the next two years that could include potential curbs on plastic production after initial treaty negotiations in December 2022 in Uruguay.
Read moreMisalignment Between Company Reproductive Health Policies And Influence Spending
Reproductive rights are on the line this year as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting the right to access abortion without excessive government restriction. Should Roe be overturned or gravely weakened, as is widely anticipated, as many as 26 states are poised to ban abortion completely within their borders.
Read moreGrowing Support for Racial Justice Audits
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) members have a long history of supporting calls for diversity and justice, including respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and addressing the negative impacts of policies and practices on communities of color.
Read moreChanging Corporate Attitudes on Racial Justice
After George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, stakeholders in public companies asked management and boards what they could do about racial injustice. Without any metrics to define best practices and separate leaders from laggards, there was no way to measure and therefore manage this critical social issue.
Read moreA Model Code for Companies to Govern Their Political Spending
As the 2022 proxy season unfolds, there’s good news and concerning news about companies and their political spending. Which wins out – greater control over political spending or a return to “business as usual” – will affect how companies fare as shareholders pay even closer attention to what they do with their political money and how it aligns with their values and positions.
Read moreMcDonald's Breaks Animal Welfare Pledge - Now Faces Board Battle
On February 20, 2022, McDonald’s confirmed that Carl Icahn nominated both Maisie Ganzler and me for the company’s board of directors in response to McDonald’s failure to meet a public pledge it made ten years ago to end the egregiously cruel and controversial practice of pig gestation crates by this year.
Read moreSecret Influence: Astroturfing Sways Public Policy
Lobbying by companies can provide governments with valuable insights and data for public policy making, yet only 8 percent of the world’s 1,000 largest companies report their spending on lobbying to investors.
Read morePipeline Finance and Respect for Indigenous Rights
Oil is already flowing through the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline, a project that has been subject to several years of protest, litigation, and opposition led by Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous-led organizations.
Read moreMandatory Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Is Good for Investors and Business
When done responsibly, business can be a driving force for prosperity and inclusive economic development. Yet, far too often, companies in many different sectors harm people and planet in their operations or value chains.
Read moreData Transparency Key to Improving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace
As the great resignation rages on and businesses struggle to retain top talent, shareholders argue that more transparency about diversity and inclusion data will help companies drive need advancements in social and racial equity. Some 65 shareholder proposals this year seek information on decent work, and another four dozen ask for workforce diversity data.
Read moreTechnology Transfer Needed to End COVID-19 Vaccine Inequity
Oxfam and co-filers have filed shareholder proposals at Moderna and Pfizer asking the companies to study how they might transfer Covid-19 vaccine technology and know-how to manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries. The companies’ refusal to transfer mRNA technology is prolonging the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read moreConcealing Harassment and Discrimination Claims Hinders Diversity Efforts
In 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, we monitored many of the CEO statements and company pledges to support the Black Lives Matter movement and to increase their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Now, in 2022, employees and investors want to see real progress on these pledges.
Read moreNew Universal Proxy Rule Will Democratize Director Elections
In November 2021, the SEC adopted final rules that will require parties in a contested corporate director election to use universal proxy cards for shareholder meetings held after August 31, 2022. Under the new rules, both the company and any shareholder seeking to elect a slate of director candidates at a shareholder meeting will be required to use proxy cards that include the names of all director nominees presented for election at the meeting.
Read more2022 Proxy Legal Overview: ESG Proposals in Ascendance
The 2022 proxy season reflects the ascendance of support for ESG shareholder proposals, along with policy changes at the SEC that both support and undermine these proposals.
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