ANALYSIS: Proxy Season Saw More ESG Proposals but Little Success

It’s been a busy proxy season for ESG shareholder proposals: US companies have included 93 environmental and 210 social shareholder proposals in their definitive proxy statements year to date.

Despite this strong shareholder activity, only about 1% of environmental proposals (1) and 3% of social proposals (6) have mustered enough support to pass. While some proposals remain pending, and the results of some votes have yet to be disclosed, the bulk of proxy season activity has already taken place—meaning that substantial upward movement in approval rates is unlikely.

One Successful Environmental Proposal YTD

Environmental shareholder proposals are slightly up from ...