Corporate Social Responsibility

Environmental issues continue to pick up steam and investors are increasingly getting help on all fronts to assist in tracking companies’ sustainability efforts.

Shareholders are resolute on climate and related sustainability resolutions. With a record 109 resolutions filed, investors achieve strong results on natural gas “fracking,” water, coal ash disposal and oil refinery safety at annual shareholder meetings.

A look at the 2011 proxy season scorecard reveals the hot shareholder issues and outcomes so far, and forecasts what issues will continue to garner a lot of shareholder attention during next year’s proxy season.

40 percent of the world’s largest publicly listed companies have not appointed even one woman to their boards. Even in major markets like Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States women continue to be grossly under-represented on corporate boards.

Many U.S. companies have sharpened their focus on broad initiatives for corporate social responsibility in response to demands from customers and investors in recent years. Once considered a “soft” boardroom issue, today a broad spectrum of corporations are addressing CSR by revamping their workforce, rewriting ethical guidelines, analyzing operations, and even remolding their leadership.

Do directors believe that environmental, social and governance factors have an impact on long-term shareholder value?

A new report from The Corporate Library found a gap between academic and corporate understandings of the function of board diversity.

Consider this: a report that isn't confined to a piece a paper, that contains financial and non-financial information, that is shareholder friendly, and interactive. It's One Report, and it's here.

The SEC voted to issue an interpretive release providing guidance for disclosures relating to climate change. While the release imposes no new disclosure obligations, it does serve to remind reporting companies that a number of existing SEC disclosure regulations may require disclosure of certain matters relating to the potential effects of climate change.

From Obama on down, outsiders—and many insiders—are exhorting corporations to think sustainable, save the planet, and reboot the crashing economy. Meet some people who can help.