A new wave of shareholder activism is building after investors in some of the UK’s best-known companies yesterday showed their disapproval over boardroom pay. Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser suffered the biggest revolt of the day on Wednesday with more than one in three investors actively voting against the executives’ remuneration report, and one in five voting against the forward-looking remuneration policy. Online grocery business Ocado also felt shareholders’ ire, with one in five going against its remuneration report and almost one in eight voting against the remuneration policy. The revolts come just over a fortnight after investors in blue-chip companies AstraZeneca and Barclays voted their concerns over pay, echoing the so-called “shareholder spring” that caused upheaval in boardrooms two years ago. BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence contractor, fared better with investors, with 93 percent supporting the company’s long-term incentive plan. However, the AGM was dominated by singing, hissing and questions from anti-arms campaigners mainly concerned with BAE’s involvement in selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. (Daily Telegraph; Financial Times*)
Religious leaders should divest from fossil fuels, says UN climate chief
Religious leaders should pull their money out of investments in fossil fuel companies and encourage their followers to do the same, according to the UN’s climate chief. Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, urged faith groups to “find their voice” and “set their moral compass” on climate change. Students and other groups have been campaigning in the US and Europe to encourage universities, local authorities and investors to divest from fossil fuel interests. On Monday, Stanford University became the latest high profile institution to do so, saying it would no longer make investments of its $18 billion endowment fund in coal mining companies. Politicians, businesses and civil society are also trying to build momentum for an international deal on climate change ahead of a key meeting of nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015. “There are a myriad of ways in which churches and mosques to synagogues and temples can assist towards an ambitious climate agreement,” said Figueres, citing the fossil fuel divestment campaign as a way they could assist efforts to reach a climate deal. (The Guardian)
Policy
Google, Facebook and Amazon write to Federal Communications Commission demanding true net neutrality
More than 100 technology companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have written to US regulators to warn that proposed ‘net neutrality’ rules pose a “grave threat to the internet”. The intervention comes against a backdrop of protest at Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans that opponents say will create a two-tier internet where big corporations are able to transmit their content to recipients at much higher speed, disadvantaging smaller competitors and other users. The internet companies’ letter to the FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, and the agency’s four commissioners comes amid calls for a delay in a vote on the plan that is scheduled for 15 May. FCC rules should not permit “individualised bargaining and discrimination,” the companies said. (The Guardian)
Supply Chain
WWF: European companies failing on soy sourcing sustainability
Leading UK and European companies are not doing enough to support sustainable soy production, according to new research by WWF. The NGO has published its Soy Report Card 2014, which highlights how retailers and restaurants such as Iceland and Nandos, as well as consumer goods companies and large animal feed and soy producers, are failing to encourage growers to reduce the negative environmental impacts of soy production. Soy is the fastest expanding crop in the world, but its growth has been associated with excessive use of pesticides and clearance of tropical forests, grasslands, and savannahs, which leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions and puts species at risk. Of the 88 major retailers, producers and feed suppliers surveyed from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, WWF found the best performers were concentrated among retailers, consumer goods manufacturers and the dairy industry. UK retailers Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Swedish-Danish dairy company Arla were among six European companies praised for already buying over half of their soy from certified responsible sources and adjudged to be on track to reach their 100 percent goals by 2015. (WWF; Business Green)
‘Groundbreaking’ principles for leadership in purchasing unveiled
The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) has unveiled a set of five essential principles that it asserts defines leadership in sustainable purchasing. By providing a common reference point for sustainability excellence, the Principles aim to enable greater alignment and benchmarking of sustainable purchasing efforts across all types of organisations. The SPLC says the Principles also serve as a “moral compass” as it launches the development of a multi-sector program for guiding, benchmarking and recognizing leadership in sustainable purchasing. The Council believes the Principles will help the institutional purchasing community achieve its full transformative potential, in much the same way that the UN Principles for Responsible Investment have helped investors to catalyse large-scale market transformation. “The Council supports a strategic approach to sustainable purchasing that is consistent across sectors,” says executive director Jason Pearson. “The potential for alignment, market influence and supply chain innovation accelerate dramatically when we all speak the same language and use similar processes to evaluate and mitigate the impacts associated with institutional purchasing.” (Sustainable Brands)
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