Proponents have filed or plan to file resolutions at four investment managers about their climate-related proxy voting policies. The resolution asks BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase to “initiate a review assessing [the company’s] 2019 proxy voting record and evaluate the Company’s proxy voting policies and guiding criteria related to climate change, including any recommended future changes.” Boston Trust Walden plans to file this resolution at several of the Vanguard mutual funds, as well, but the various funds do not always hold shareholder meetings each year and a proposal must be filed on a fund-by-fund basis.

PROXY VOTING POWER CAN TRANSFORM COMPANY CLIMATE ACTION

TIMOTHY SMITH
Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement, Boston Trust Walden

JARED FERNANDEZ
ESG Research Analyst, Boston Trust Walden

The power of proxy voting to transform corporate behavior is real. Through the height of the 2019 proxy voting season, shareholders had the opportunity—and responsibility—to vote on 177 shareholder resolutions addressing environmental and social issues and sustainable governance. Boston Trust Walden takes this fiduciary responsibility seriously, striving to vote on all company and shareholder proposals presented in proxy statements. Our multi-year initiative to hold asset managers we invest in accountable for thoughtfully incorporating long-term ESG considerations in their proxy voting practices remains an engagement priority.

Zevin Asset Management has a similar request at T. Rowe Price, seeking the same thing; it also says that the report should include “an assessment of any incongruities between the Company’s public statements and pledges regarding climate change (including ESG risk considerations associated with climate change), and the voting policies and practices of its subsidiaries.”

SEC action: JPMorgan says it cannot implement the resolution, that it is moot and that it concerns ordinary business; T. Rowe Price is making the latter argument, as well.