Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts look to ensure all employees, regardless of race or sex, get a fair shot. The recent Supreme Court decision to end affirmative action in college admissions does not affect companies’ abilities to run DEI programs – although it may impact their pipeline of incoming talent.
Read moreBig Pharma Patent Extension Abuse Threatens Healthcare and Human Rights
For decades, Trinity Health along with other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility’s Health Equity Group have made improving affordability of and access to medicines a focus for corporate engagements with the pharma sector. The United States has some of the highest prescription drug prices in the world. This affects not only patients who can’t afford needed medicines but also threatens healthcare budgets
Read moreThere is No ‘Just Transition’ Without Environmental Justice
Environmental justice ensures that everyone, regardless of income, race or national origin, has the same environmental protections and can meaningfully participate in policies that shape their communities. In reality, low-income communities and communities of color in the United States have faced a long history of racial inequity and environmental injustice.
Read moreAssessing Risks of AI Misinformation and Disinformation
Big Tech, including Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, is investing hundreds of billions of dollars to dominate the AI race. This year, shareholder proposals ask tech companies to increase transparency around AI and assess AI-related risks, particularly to children and elections
Read moreBig Tech Fails to Protect Children Online
In January 2024, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared at a U.S. Senate hearing regarding online child sexual exploitation. In the back of the room stood parents holding photos of their children who died after online sexual exploitation and cyberbullying. At one point Mr. Zuckerberg said to them “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Read moreThe Mandatory Board Director Say-On-Pay Bylaw By-Law Amendment
Shareholders have struggled to enforce corporate director accountability. Beyond contested board elections, shareholders today have little practical, direct impact on directors.
On one important subject, director pay, at almost all U.S. companies, directors have absolute authority over their compensation.
Read moreGood Corporate Governance Requires Active Board Monitoring of ESG Risks
In today’s marketplace, companies are under increasing scrutiny regarding their public impacts—and their governance of these matters. This has serious material implications for all stakeholders.
Read moreProxy Voting Could Bridge the Red and Blue Divide
Investors currently get the same voting advice from the leading proxy advisory firms, whether broadly diversified or highly concentrated. A portfolio-wide focus for voting makes more sense for diversified investors and investors concerned with environmental and social issues.
Read moreMotivating Progress on Climate with CEO Compensation
Companies increasingly are incorporating climate-related metrics into CEO pay packages. The effectiveness of CEO compensation as an accountability mechanism, however, hinges on at least three key factors.
Read moreThe European Union Driving Sustainability and Actionable ESG Data Forward
The arena of sustainable investment is evolving globally. For the European Union, the impact is clear: to operate in the EU, companies must elevate their sustainability game and material data disclosures.
Read moreNew Standards Can Help Companies Avoid Carbon Offset Greenwashing
Shareholder scrutiny of corporate offsetting strategies is growing as the voluntary carbon market (VCM) grows, with projections it may be worth $50 billion annually by 2030. Carbon offset advocates believe the VCM incentivizes critical investments in mitigation and adaptation, even as global efforts fail to deliver on emission reduction targets. Yet companies can face reputational and litigation risks for participating in the VCM given credibility questions. Companies can reduce the risks associated with purchasing voluntary credits by aligning their strategies with best practices and procuring third-party verified high-quality credits.
Read moreInvestors Expect Science Based GHG Targets and Reporting
Shareholders in 2023 are tightly focused on resolutions asking companies to establish science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets that cover the full value chain of emissions—and to report on them. The science is clear that companies need to rapidly act to reduce emissions to limit global warming to a 1.5°C increase in warming.
Read moreMethane Emissions Significantly Underestimated - Direct Measurement Needed
Why does methane matter? It is a powerful greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 80 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. While carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years, methane breaks down in a decade – impactful while it lasts (and, so far, it’s responsible for around 30 percent of global temperature rise), but it has a shorter life in the atmosphere.
Read moreInsurance Sector Leaders and Laggards Emerging on Climate Risk
For a second year in a row, As You Sow filed climate-related proposals with three insurers -- Chubb, Traveler’s, and Berkshire Hathaway -- asking the companies to measure, disclose, and set net-zero targets for their underwriting and investing activities. The proposals last year earned majority votes – 72 percent and 56 percent, respectively at Chubb and Travelers, and a vote at Berkshire garnered 46 percent of independent voters supporting the proposal (25 percent overall vote).
Read moreClimate Related CEO Pay Incentives Lack Rigor and Specificity
In the last few years, companies have begun to use non-financial metrics more often in CEO pay packages. In 2021, 52 percent of S&P 500 companies reported including ESG metrics in compensation while 69 percent said they will be included in 2022 compensation packages.than one-third, posing the significant challenge of decoupling emissions from the sector’s growth.
Read moreCompanies Claim Transferred Emissions Reduce GHG, But All It Does Is Move Pollution Elsewhere
To address growing climate-related portfolio risk, investors increasingly expect companies to set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5o goal and to report their reduction progress. Fundamental to target setting and reporting, however, is accuracy. Reported progress must reflect real-world emissions cuts. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
Read moreClosing the Loop on Plastic Pollution
Many corporations are attempting to mitigate the plastic pollution crisis by reducing their use of plastics, yet few have committed to tackling the crisis in its entirety by taking accountability for what actually happens to their packaging at its end of life.
Read moreBoard Diversity Disclosure Identifies Leaders and Laggards
Boards are becoming more diverse and detailed disclosure provides a critical window into progress. Boards that are both diverse and inclusive offer multiple ways to look at strategy and risk and a lower likelihood of groupthink. Their selection process extends beyond the board’s immediate network and diverse boards connect companies to communities that represent large swaths of its customers, employees and/or business locations. For investors and also for researchers, the more specific the company’s disclosures, the easier it is to assess board composition compared to the demographics of key stakeholders and society at large.
Read moreEmployees Unaware of Climate Risk in Retirement Plans
One hundred million Americans have invested more than $10 trillion in retirement savings that likely are not aligned with their values. Many corporations strive to reduce material risk for all stakeholders by becoming more environmentally and socially responsible. But if they do not consider climate-related financial risks, most invest employees’ hard-earned savings in oil, coal-fired utilities and agribusinesses involved in deforestation, which means employees’ savings fuel climate change.
Read moreSteel Industry Net Zero Targets Key for Decarbonization
Reducing GHG emissions from steel, one of the most widely used industrial materials, is a critical part of the global challenge of maintaining global temperatures to 1.5˚C. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the iron and steel sector accounts for 7 percent of global CO2 emissions due to its significant use of fossil fuels, heavy industrial process emissions, and power use. By 2050, demand for steel is expected to increase by more than one-third, posing the significant challenge of decoupling emissions from the sector’s growth.
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