ESG shareholder proposal trends

Here’s a note from Morningstar’s Lindsay Stewart:

On ESG resolutions, the Big Three index managers – BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard – tend to take a more conservative view of what’s in shareholders’ best interests compared with many other managers. As a result, support outside the Big Three for the best-supported shareholder resolutions is often much higher than headline figures suggest.

Based on publicly available share ownership data, we estimate that among U.S. large-cap companies, there would have been around 30 more well-supported “key resolutions” in each of the last two proxy years if we exclude the Big Three’s votes. Read the latest Proxy-Voting Insights to find out more. (Links in the comments.)

And here’s a note from Waheed Hassan about ZMH Advisor’s report on shareholder proposal trends:

The total number of shareholder proposals thus far in 2023 has already exceeded the year-end totals for 2022.

According to ZMH’s AI-powered Engagement Dashboard:

🟢 Top Environmental Proposal Themes (average support received)🟢
Climate Risk (20.0%)
Environmental Lobbying & Political Spending (23.3%)
Waste, Plastic & Water Pollution (25.8%)

🟣 Top Social Proposal Themes (average support received)🟣
Human Rights (10.6%)
Civil Rights Audit (11.9%)
Community Impact (14.3%)

🟡 Top Governance Proposal Themes (average support received)🟡
Chairman Independence (30.1%)
Golden Parachutes (22.5%)
Special Meetings (average support received 31.7%)