26/09/2011
Ceres publishes recommendations for environmental and social issues
Ceres, an association to promote sustainable development, has published a guide which aims to help investors to handle environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, which account for an increasing proportion of resolutions at general shareholders’ meetings of US companies. “Investors can no longer afford to ignore or abstain from taking positions on environmental and social challenges which their companies are going to have to confront, particularly in relation to climate change, shortages of water and human rights,” says Mindy Lubber, chairwoman of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), which represents about USD10trn in assets. Shareholders should use proxy voting rights to take stands on these issues, but all too often, they don’t do so, due to overly vague voting recommendations. ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) has compiled a list of over 720 resolutions on environmental and social issues in the past 10 years. Despite the rise of these issues, “the largest asset management firms have often failed to take the occasion to promote key reforms in sustainable development and governance at large corporations, including reforms that would perhaps have prevented the most recent financial crisis,” Ceres claims.
