The Shareholder Commons

Shareholders' long-held right to communicate with fellow shareholders is under serious threat. In recent years, the #FossilFuel industry in particular has worked to stop investors from addressing concerns about #ClimateChange. In the new administration, however, it looks as if efforts to silence shareholders have entered a new and more dangerous era, as part of an effort to silence voices that disagree with the power structure. This important report from Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the Shareholder Rights Group, and US SIF details the threat that silencing disagreement poses to the capital markets: "Long-standing safeguards in our capital markets are at risk. The shareholder proposal process is a critical tool for investors to guard investment value from material risks and to protect the American public from corporate misconduct and egregious behavior. In 2025, legislative, regulatory and judicial assaults threaten these rights." #ShareholderRights Josh Zinner James McRitchie Bryan McGannon Cynthia Simon Susana Rodrigo McDermott Mark Uyeda Jonas Kron Trillium Asset Management Julie Goodridge North Star Asset Management Sanford Lewis

In March, we will release the 3rd annual edition of Portfolios on the Ballot (#POTB), a #ProxyVoting guide for investors who practice #SystemStewardship to protect the value of their entire portfolios.   Join us for a webinar on March 18 where we will review the concepts of system stewardship and systems-first proxy voting and highlight proposals featured in POTB, including two investor-mediated #guardrails (one intended to slow the growing problem of #AntimicrobialResistance, the other to promote #LivingWages). Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/exNKFnja

An anti-shareholder movement—often mislabeled as “anti-ESG”—is silencing everyday investors’ voices in the USA, including the 50% of private sector workers who participate in 401(k) retirement plans. Our latest newsletter explains. #SystemStewardship

“I just want to highlight the pay. It’s not enough for a person to pay the bills… We used to do 40 hours a week but now we’re doing 36, 37. So I had to get another job to be able to pay my bills… And when [Duane Reade (a Walgreen’s brand)] decide[s] they want to give you more hours, you can’t work them because you have a second job... I’ve been here 26 years and I’m only making $18 an hour.” ~ 26-year Walgreens Boots Alliance employee, member of the RETAIL WHOLESALE & DEPARTMENT STORE LOCAL 338 RWDSU On January 30, 2025, we urge investors to vote “AGAINST” Walgreens Boots Alliance's Executive Chairman Stefano Pessina (Item 1h on the proxy), due to Walgreens' failure to pay a #LivingWage, thereby compromising its workers’ livelihoods and exposing its diversified shareholders’ portfolios to economic harm that arises from #PovertyWages and growing #IncomeInequality. https://lnkd.in/eAh9h2aF #SystemStewardship Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) ShareAction Dan Howard Hannah Picton Ruan Opie-Meres

Our CSO Sara E. Murphy's piece on how investors can tackle #PovertyWages for long-term gains has been published. See why and how investors can and should insist that the companies they own pay a #LivingWage. Spoiler alert: doing so is better for the economy, and is thus better for diversified portfolios. As part of our living wage #guardrail campaign, we hope fiduciaries will vote AGAINST Stefano Pessina (Walgreens Boots Alliance's board chair) over his company's failure to protect its own shareholders by paying a living wage.

Last year we filed shareholder proposals at Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walmart, Target, and Kroger asking them to pay a #LivingWage. This is in investors’ best interests: inadequate pay can materially reduce the intrinsic value of the global economy, which in turn harms investment portfolios. The companies have declined to do so, warranting a vote against their board chairs. We will be filing exempt solicitations providing the empirical evidence and fiduciary case for these votes. Our exempt solicitation for Walgreens has been published. On January 30, 2025, we hope you will vote AGAINST Stefano Pessina (Item 1h on WBA’s proxy card), as well as against the board chairs at other companies that don’t operate in their shareholders’ best interests. https://lnkd.in/g3Nug5Cs #SystemStewardship

Our friends and colleagues at ShareAction are hiring. They are doing phenomenal work, and they provide a passionate and collegial atmosphere to boot. We are HUGE fans, and we encourage folks in our network to apply. #JobOpportunity #GoodWork

In November 2023, the CFA Institute, Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, and Principles for Responsible Investment released "Definitions for Responsible Investment Approaches." These “harmonized definitions” include a definition of “stewardship” that encourages investors to understand that one essential element of stewardship is to “protect and enhance overall long-term value for clients and beneficiaries, including the common economic, social, and environmental assets on which their interests depend.” The definition continues, explaining: "The concept of overall value for clients and beneficiaries is multifaceted. It includes the market value of the entire portfolio (as opposed to individual holdings or individual mandates); the long-term value-creation capabilities of firms and economies; and the common environmental, natural, intellectual, social, and institutional assets that underpin all economies." #SystemStewardship Susheela Peres da Costa Christopher Fidler Nathan Fabian David Atkin Margaret Franklin, CFA Simon O'Connor Paul Andrews Nicole Gehrig Robin Willis Jane Ambachtsheer Bryan McGannon Mary Robinson, CFA Lisa Woll Michal Bartek, CFA Toby Belsom Lauren Green Kelly Krauter Clara MELOT René van Merrienboer Eilidh Wagstaff

Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) released a paper in September 2024 entitled "Universal Ownership: Decarbonisation in a Hostile Engagement Environment." Using the term “universal owner” to convey an idea similar to “long-term, diversified investor,” this paper explains the need for diversified owners to engage portfolio companies on systemic issues. IEEFA explains that “[u]niversal owners are unable to avoid risks that ultimately affect the entirety of the economic system to varying degrees, meaning they must seek to reduce ‘systemic risk’ to protect beta (market) returns. This will often mean addressing the externalities caused by entities held within the universal owner’s own portfolio.” Focusing on environmental issues and the increasingly “hostile” environment in which stewardship teams must operate, IEEFA’s paper highlights what it describes as a “mixed track record” of enterprise value-focused engagement strategies. The report proposes systemic-focused engagement strategies as solutions to the conundrum of engaging a company when a win-win solution is unlikely. #SystemStewardship #UniversalOwnership Alasdair Docherty

Oxfam and Rights CoLab recently released their report, "The Investor Case for Fighting Inequality: How Inequality Harms Investors and What Investors Should Do About It." Focused on the sources and outcomes of socioeconomic #Inequality, this paper serves to alert investors to the growing body of evidence showing that investors must tackle inequality for the sake of their investments, and it argues that the factors exacerbating inequalities lead to both enterprise-level risks and “broader systemic harms to the macroeconomy that companies and investors must absorb”: "In particular, there is now mounting evidence that inequality is a systemic risk that affects the financial system, the macroeconomy, and the total portfolios of large, diversified investors. Inequality increases the probability of financial crises and, under various conditions, can depress the growth rate of the economy. Inequality is also intertwined with other risks to the financial system, such as climate change, food insecurity, pandemics and other health burdens, polarization and social unrest, corruption, and the erosion of democracy and the rule of law. The largest mainstream investors are diversified owners of thousands of assets, making them significantly more exposed to market risk than to the risk of any one issuer." #SystemStewardship Paul Rissman Joanne Bauer Irit Tamir Sharmeen Contractor Silvana Zapata-Ramirez Nabil Ahmed Hana Ivanhoe Diana Kearney Julia Falkow