Eleven deforestation proposals have appeared on companies’ proxy statements since the beginning of 2016, according to Bloomberg data. Although only two of those proposals have passed, they are the most recent two—which might point to a new shift in shareholder attention to deforestation-related risk in companies’ supply chains.
Last October, 68% of P&G shareholders backed a proposal requesting the company “report on efforts to eliminate deforestation” from its forest pulp and palm oil supply chains. This was the first time that a deforestation-related proposal had ever passed, stopping a run of nine straight shareholder losses. (The Bloomberg data covers 2016–present.) ...