Anti-ESG Proposals Have Increased in Volume, but Fare Poorly

The movement for greater corporate responsibility over environmental, social and governance issues, commonly known as ESG, has become increasingly prevalent across boardrooms and shareholder meetings in recent years. However, alongside this momentum, there has been growing opposition to corporate ESG initiatives, and groups critical of these efforts have grown in tandem. The debate over ESG has been a hot-button topic for years—further exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic—and has only continued to grow in importance within shareholder meetings.

A recent example can be seen in Costco’s latest proxy filing, where the Company defended its DEI program against an anti-ESG proposal that criticized the initiative as financially irresponsible and discriminatory. This comes at a time when an increasing number of companies are rolling back similar programs. The pressure from anti-ESG shareholder proposers continues to grow, making its way into corporate boardrooms.

This Equilar study analyzes all anti-ESG shareholder proposals that have been presented at companies’ general shareholder meetings within the Equilar 500—the 500 largest U.S. public companies by revenue—over the last five years. Shareholder proposals were categorized as anti-ESG if they mention calling for a decrease in claiming corporate responsibility for issues that span environmental, social and governance topics or are critical of investor intervention that call for companies to be held liable for social or environmental issues. (more…)