2012 Guide to Social and Environmental Shareholder Proxy Proposals

The Shareholder Activist - 2012 Guide to Social and Environmental Shareholder Proxy ProposalsFollowing another year of record-breaking shareowner votes on social and environmental issues – including five majority votes – socially responsible investors are gearing up to have even greater impact in 2012. This year’s edition of Proxy Preview provides a comprehensive overview of hundreds of upcoming social and environmental shareholder resolutions. It also offers insider details from dozens of shareholder advocates, as well as resources for how institutional investors with a social mission can better align their values with their votes.

This year nearly a third of the shareholder resolutions featured in the Proxy Preview support more disclosure from companies about how they spend money on political campaigns and lobbying. Other issues run the gamut from the environment (climate change, coal, fracking, toxic chemicals, and water scarcity) to mortgage foreclosures, human trafficking and supply chain accountability, sexual orientation discrimination, worker safety at oil refineries, and animal welfare

Proxy Preview 2012 is the 8th edition of the report hailed as the “Bible for socially progressive foundations, religious groups, pension funds, and tax-exempt organizations” by the Chicago Tribune. It is a collaboration between As You Sow, an environmental and social advocacy organization that has published the Proxy Preview since 2005; the Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), which conducts impartial research on social and environmental shareholder proposals; and Proxy Impact, a proxy voting service designed specifically to meet the needs of foundations and socially responsible investors.

Congratulations to those who contributed to this continued collaboration.

To contact James McRitchie directly, please email jm@corpgov.net.

Thank you for reading this investor activism blog. Please contact Info@TheShareholderActivist.com to request advice and recommendations on services and solutions to support corporate social responsibility and your shareholder activism. We also encourage you to submit your comments so that we can share your experiences with our growing community of shareholder activists.
Posted in Featured, Shareholder Policies & Investor Regulations, Shareholder Proposals | 1 Comment

One Response to 2012 Guide to Social and Environmental Shareholder Proxy Proposals



  1. Christopher Bayer, Ph.D. says:

    “It’s All About Momentum”

    Motivation can be a kind of ‘self-refueling phenomenon.’ With success, shareholders crave, and achieve, more success. Gordon Allport’s “Functional Autonomy Theory of Motivation” (1937!) provides an interesting perspective for shareholder activists.

    A year (2012) of record breaking votes on social and environmental issues drives socially responsible investors, and sustains their momentum. Their motivation starts to achieve a “life of its own,” and becomes functionally autonomous: it runs on its own steam.

    Motivational forces and energies can excel geometrically. This is true power which then has the capacity to inspire. Power to accomplish goals and insure the sustainability of companies we co-own. Confidence, conviction, and inspiration are necessary human elements required when “the going gets rough.” Shareholders united cannot fail.

    As McRitchie asserts: collaborators in this process are to be saluted! They are helping to build a sounder corporate America which can endure and be socially responsible.