Shareholders are increasingly raising social and environmental issues in meetings. Nearly 40 percent of all shareholder proposals submitted in the first half of meetings in 2014 were related to social and environmental policy issues. This is over a 10 percent increase from 2010. Political spending and climate change are predicted to be hot topics in 2015 shareholder proposals. Click here to download the report in Director Notes. This report reviews the content of the social and environmental proposals voted on most frequently by shareholders of Russell 3000 companies during the proxy season. The report also provides examples of proposal text and sponsor supporting statements and board responses and related corporate disclosure. For additional information on the social and environmental policy issues that were the subject of shareholder proposals in 2014 and recent proxy seasons, download Proxy Voting Analytics (2010-2014), the annual benchmarking report published by The Conference Board in collaboration with FactSet.
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