policy documents
Document | TSC Perspective | Outcomes |
September 11, 2022 The Shareholder Commons | In this comment, we highlight positive impact that the Proposed Rules and Reaffirmation will have on the ability of shareholders to express their views and exercise oversight regarding the social and environmental impact that companies have on the economy and diversified portfolios. This is a critical area where the interests of shareholders and management are more likely to diverge than they are on proposals that are only oriented to the enterprise value of the company itself. | Regulation Pending |
August 16, 2022 The Shareholder Commons | Recognize the distinction between using ESG-related tools to improve the financial performance of individual companies and using such tools in order to preserve social and environmental systems, and thereby improve overall securities market performance. Recognize the heightened importance of voting and engagement with respect to systemic stewardship by allowing the appropriate use of ESG terminology for funds that focus on ESG stewardship, even if they do not use ESG factors to select 80% of their investments. | Regulation Pending |
June 17, 2022 The Shareholder Commons, B Lab U.S. & Canada | Climate disclosure needs to focus on economy-wide impacts of company behavior, not just on how climate change affects company performance. A disclosure framework that would also support a beta stewardship approach whereby investors engage with companies and vote their shares to push companies to end practices that, even if profitable for the company, threaten the economy and thus overall market returns. | Regulation Pending |
May 16, 2022 The Shareholder Commonss, B Lab U.S. & Canada | The primary focus of the request is to gain an understanding of whether the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) might take action to protect the retirement savings of U.S. workers and their families from climate-related financial risk. | Pending |
Litigation documents
Document | TSC Perspective | Outcomes |
October 3, 2022 James McRitchie, The Shareholder Commons | The lawsuit outlines numerous reports that have highlighted Meta’s prioritization of profits over the interests of communities around the world, including its users. The complaint focuses on the persistent refusal of Meta’s directors and officers to account for the threat this behavior poses to Meta’s own diversified investors. The complaint also details how Meta failed to spend money to prevent its platform from being used to promote modern slavery, ethnic violence, organized crime, and vaccine disinformation, to the detriment of global GDP. | |
October 15, 2021 James McRitchie, As You Sow, The Shareholder Commons | Plaintiffs argue that the Commission failed to quantify the impact of the amendments on the number of proposals that will be filed. Plaintiffs' arguments are especially acute with respect to holders of relatively small, diversified portfolios. This forced choice is particularly problematic for women and people of color, who have smaller portfolios. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Amendments to the Dodd-Frank Act are likely to reduce the ability of small shareholders to make shareholder proposals. Diversified shareholders' financial returns depend largely on the return of the market as a whole, rather than on the individual performance of particular companies. A concentrated shareholder might benefit if its few companies create external costs that weigh on the economy, but it could lose out if those costs hurt the rest of its portfolio. | Court ruling pending |
Other
Document | TSC Perspective | Outcomes |
May 4, 2022 The Shareholder Commons | Adding beta information to the ISSB reporting standard would not significantly enlarge the reporting requirement because any company conduct that threatens or benefits beta is likely to create corresponding regulatory and reputational risks and benefits to enterprise value, so that most beta information should be deemed material even under a putative ESG standard. Such a standard, rising above a single focus on financial materiality but rooted in investor return, would not rise to the level of double materiality, and might best be described as “sesquimateriality.” | Final version of standards pending |
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