Le temps de l’activisme… sociétalement responsable ?

Dans GreenBiz, Keith Larsen revient sur l’activisme actionnariale sous un angle particulier : le fait que cet activisme s’oriente en faveur de la RSE et que cette tendance va connaître une croissance les temps prochains (« It looks like this year will be big for investor activism », 14 mars 2017).

Amid unprecedented uncertainty about the Trump administration’s commitment to environmental and social issues, investors are relying more heavily than ever on companies to take action on initiatives such as addressing climate change, conserving water or reducing waste.

So far in 2017, shareholder resolutions specifically related to social and environmental issues have increased to 430 from 370 resolutions last year, according to As You Sow’s annual Proxy Preview.

According to the report, resolutions related to climate change and political activity underlie much of the shareholder activist sentiment thus far in 2017. Overall, environmental policies were the subject of 26 percent of the proposals filed, while corporate disclosures related to political activity accounted for 21 percent of the proposals filed. Suggestions related to human rights (18 percent), sustainability programs (12 percent) and diversity (11 percent) rounded out the top five.

The Proxy Preview provides an overview of environmental, social and sustainable governance resolutions filed in 2017 in preparation for « proxy season, » when shareholders of public companies vote on new boards and a range of issues during annual meetings.

(…) A rise in investor activism

Shareholder resolutions, also known as shareholder proposals, are part of a larger trend of shareholder activism in ESG issues.

A recent study by Harvard University found that about 40 percent of shareholder proposals on the Russell 3000, an index that is a benchmark for the entire U.S stock market, are related to ESG issues, a 60 percent increase since 2003.

While the study found that most of these ESG proposals fail to receive majority support, it also found that these resolutions nonetheless can improve a company’s attention and performance on the ESG issue in question.

À la prochaine…

Ivan Tchotourian

Ce contenu a été mis à jour le 14 mars 2017 à 10 h 16 min.