Our key takeaway: Investors: can you push for more doing and less saying? ShareAction finds, based on the 2022 proxy voting season, that investors are prioritising disclosure-oriented resolutions over action-oriented resolutions. However, action-oriented resolutions, which specifically request companies to adopt policies, processes, commitments and targets, are much more likely to drive change. It is only through action-oriented resolutions that investors will be able to play a role in the business transformation that is needed on environmental and social issues. ShareAction provides a number of recommendations to help investors push for action, including: set strong policies for default voting in favour of environmental and social resolutions; request and provide transparency on voting decisions; hold managers to account via a “comply or explain” approach when voting against environmental and social resolutions and work with others working with the same asset managers (for asset owners); and escalate and hold companies to account when ESG performance isn’t met (asset managers).
ShareAction published its annual Voting Matters (January 2022) report reviewing the year’s overall trends and voting performance of 68 large asset managers on 252 shareholder resolutions regarding social and environmental issues: