Corp-governance reforms keep traction

It was a tough year for many shareholder activists pressing companies for votes on things like climate accounting or boardroom diversity issues. But shareholder proposals asking companies for changes such as electing all directors annually or disclosing their political contributions did better, a sign of continued investor interest.
    
You can read more about this in my column this week, linked below. I've also included links to our coverage of the impact of an immigration raid, Boeing's recovering output, and one technology company's use of drones to clean up Mount Everest.
         
Please follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky. Or get me via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com. 

Despite a tough year for shareholder resolutions, many corporate governance reforms continued to get traction.
    
At annual meetings for U.S. public corporations, reform proposals targeting governance issues like voting rights or political contributions - the "G" part of the ESG acronym - won 33.9% support on average for the 12 months ended June 30. That was close to their support rate from a year earlier and higher than in 2023, according to Morningstar. 
    
In contrast, average support for resolutions on environmental and social themes fell to 15.7%, about half the rate of three years ago. Out of 231 governance resolutions voted on at U.S. companies this year, 46 won the support of a majority of voted shares.
    
Proponents and analysts say the figures indicate many investors agree on principles like equal shareholder voting rights or annual director elections, concepts that are more studied and developed than matters like how companies should account for their carbon emissions.

You can read the rest of my column this week by clicking the button below.

Reuters Sustainable Finance is sent weekly. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here.

This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement.

Terms & Conditions