Shareholder Advocacy for the 2024 Proxy Season

 

Amazon (AMZN) – Report on the Risks of Rekognition

– submitted for inclusion in the 2024 proxy materials

We are proud to announce that our proposal was reintroduced for the 2024 proxy season, marking a record six years running! Although the proposal dipped slightly in terms of support from the previous year, it amassed a hearty 37.5%, indicating support from shareholders remains strong. At this time, no word yet from AMZN about accepting our offer to engage, though we hope they will eventually agree to meet with us to discuss the issues that continue to haunt “Rekognition” – as they aren’t going to disappear, and neither are we.

 

• Date for Amazon’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA

 

Citigroup (C) – Report on Animal Welfare Oversight

– submitted for inclusion in the 2024 proxy materials

As you may know, last year HII filed a resolution at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) requesting the board of directors revise the Public Responsibility Committee Charter to include Committee oversight of material issues related to animal welfare. This was one of the first known proposals at a bank to be filed pushing for oversight on issues related to animal welfare. Unfortunately, the proposal did not receive enough support to return for a second year. At HII, we feel strongly that these important issues are not being addressed to a negligible degree at most financial institutions, so we resolved to address them at Citigroup – however, our approach with Citigroup is a bit different. HII is seeking that the company publish a report disclosing whether and how the Board of Directors exercises oversight regarding material risks associated with animal welfare. We have a meeting with corporate staff at Citigroup scheduled for January.

• Date for Citigroup’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA

 

Goldman Sachs Group (GS) – Environmental Justice Impact Report

– submitted for inclusion in 2024 proxy material

As many are aware, insurers & financial institutions have been under increased scrutiny for the less savory things they finance, particularly popular topics include pipelines, fossil fuel production and other issues associated with climate change. The resolution we co-filed is among the many that aim to assist GS in minimizing their impact on climate change, by way of an environmental justice assessment. This is the first year the proposal has been submitted.

 

  • The Sierra Club Foundation is the lead filer on this proposal & will lead engagement with GS if they choose to accept the collective offer to dialogue.

  • Date for Citigroup’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA

 

McDonald’s (MCD) – Global Transparency Report

–  submitted for inclusion in 2024 proxy material

We are back at the fast-food giant for a 3rd year with our request for greater disclosure on corporate funding to affect and influence public policy around the world by way of a Global Transparency Report. Once again, we are joined by our colleagues & allies at Corporate Accountability, who have been along with us since the inception of this proposal, and a similar version was resubmitted at PepsiCo for 2024, as well. MCD has reached out and we are currently coordinating a date for a discussion.

• Date for McDonald’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA

 

Microsoft (MSFT) – Report on Risks of Developing Weapons

This is technically a 2023 update, though MSFT has an uncharacteristically later meeting date in the year. MSFT held its annual general meeting (AGM) in December, and our proposal garnered nearly another 5% increase in support from shareholders, acquiring 15.2% votes in favor of the resolution which requested the company to produce a report detailing the risks of the company being deemed a “weapons” company, due to their highly controversial U.S. military contract to develop the HoloLens technology.  

 

• Microsoft’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders was held on December 7th at 8:30am PT.

  • Date for Microsoft’s 2024 Shareholders’ meeting: TBA

 

PepsiCo (PEP) – Global Transparency Report

– submitted for inclusion in proxy material 

As mentioned above, we have reintroduced a modified version of the Global Transparency Report at PEP with the assistance of our partners at Corporate Accountability. We are pleased to report that we have already had one meeting with some of the staff at PEP who have agreed to send some more information regarding our recent conversation, and we plan to circle back with them a little later down the road.

 

• Date for PepsiCo’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA

 

 

Wells Fargo (WFC) – Contribution Congruency Report

– submitted for inclusion in proxy material

 

2024 is the second year we have resubmitted our proposal focused on congruency between corporate political contributions and stated values. We have already received a No-Action Request, challenging our resolution on grounds of being “duplicative” of other proposals submitted by other proponents prior to ours, to which our attorney is responding. We also have a meeting with staff at WFC scheduled for January.

 

• Date for Wells Fargo’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders: TBA