May 27-31 is the busiest week of proxy season and right in the middle are the Meta, ExxonMobil and Chevron annual meetings on Wednesday, May 29. Most companies never receive a shareholder resolution. Those that do often face one resolution or perhaps two, but a few attract many more. This year, shareholders filed a combined 25 resolutions at Meta, Exxon and Chevron.

The pro-ESG resolutions now pending include:

• Meta: Child Safety; Content Harm/Human Rights; AI Misinformation; AI Human Rights Impacts; Political Ad Policy; Climate Lobbying.

• Exxon: Racial and Gender Pay Gap; Plastics Pollution; Climate Transition Plan;

• Chevron: Plastics Pollution; Tax Compliance; Human Rights Impacts.

Some of those issues have been discussed in earlier Alerts, but our focus this week is on

• the exponential growth of online child safety risk (and financial risk) at Meta;

• the often misunderstood practice of transferred assets and GHG emissions at Exxon, Chevron and elsewhere;

• a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion report request at DocuSign;

• the EU’s new sustainability reporting requirements that affects subsidiaries of U.S. companies in Europe.

Child Safety Online

Meta has about 3.6 billion monthly users and hosts nearly half the world’s social media use. Its apps repeatedly have been linked to ongoing harms to children and teens, featuring online sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, self-harm and hate group recruitment. The proponents this year contend that Meta has not adequately acted to ensure child safety and thus has exposed the company to significant regulatory, legal and reputational risk; they note new Meta encryption policies will greatly increase the risks of online child sexual abuse. The resolution asks Meta to adopt quantitative targets and report on how it is reducing harm to kids. A related resolution at Alphabet focuses on child sexual exploitation materials (a similar resolution was withdrawn at Apple).

• Vote due date: Meta, May 28; Alphabet, June 6.

• Learn more: Big Tech Fails to Protect Children Online

Transferred GHG Emissions

A new resolution filed at Exxon and Chevron won’t be on their proxies this year because the SEC agreed it concerned ordinary business since it was too detailed. But the proposal highlighted a crucial question about GHG emissions reduction and reporting that may prompt similar filings at other companies in the future. It focused on what happens when energy companies sell off assets with high GHG emissions and then claim an emissions reduction; no overall reduction in remissions occurs because they are simply transferred to other owners. This can make a company’s emissions profile look better and closer to a net-zero goal without making any overall difference, and mislead investors who want to see global cuts because climate change is a systemic risk.

• Learn more: Do Oil and Gas Industry Divestments Result in Emissions Increases?

Diversity Equity Inclusion

A 2023 report Capturing The Diversity Benefit, assessed 1,600 companies and how their diversity hiring and promotion changed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement’s spotlight on the benefits of workplace diversity. Shareholder resolutions on this issue have continued to receive solid support despite political headwinds. Proponents at DocuSign seek a DEI report with quantitative data on workforce diversity, hiring, promotion and retention that includes gender, race and ethnicity data.

• Vote due date: DocuSign, May 28.

• Learn more: Diverse Workforce Outperforms on Eight Key Financial Measures

EU Sustainability Standards

The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive continues to move forward and will apply to U.S. subsidiaries operating there. In the past, higher EU standards have helped drive shareholder expectations and demands for improved reporting in the United States. “For multinational companies, the stringent EU standards are more than just a regional compliance checklist; they are a blueprint for global corporate responsibility,” says Meri Podzic, CEO of As You Know, a provider of high-quality ESG data based in Europe.

Expert Insight from:

Meri Podzic, CEO, As You Know
Meri Podzic is the CEO of As You Know which provides actionable ESG data on over 3000 companies that helps inform sustainable investing and reporting. Meri’s career spans significant global institutions including the World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Press Institute (IPI), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

• Learn more: The European Union Driving Sustainability and Actionable ESG Data Forward