Ernst & Young publish 2011 Proxy Season Report

Ernst & Young just published its 2011 Proxy Season Report that features highlights and implications for the coming year. E&Y found the top five proxy season results to be:

1. Advisory votes on pay receive high support from shareholders in the first year of mandatory say-on-pay
2. Director opposition votes decline
3. Issue-shareholder engagement moves to a new level
4. Trends continue for implementation of greater accountability measures at the board level and elimination of barriers for shareholders to push change
5. Voting support demonstrates the growing value shareholders place on social and environmental issues

Overall the 2011 proxy season brought about significant changes to the governance landscape. Investors gained more rights through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The ability to directly vote on executive pay practices and issue more frequent say-on-pay proposals provides investors with new avenues to express their opinions and views on executive pay. These new rights have also opened the door to better dialogue between issuers and shareholders.

These changes also imply that boards will feel increased pressure to keep up with trends and respond to results. Investors are expected to closely follow management responses to votes on say-on-pay proposals that receive strong support. Investors are more focused on the make-up of the board as well, with regard to gender, race and age. Boards will be challenged to defend their decisions on strategic objectives going forward, and analyze how executive compensation impacts long-term strategy and risk.

Two other interesting results from the 2011 Proxy Season include;

1. Proposals to appoint an independent board chair received average support and has not increased much over the years and may indicate investors believe boards should have discretion over their formation.
2. Proposals for diversity on boards has one of the fastest growth rates over the years and may indicate shareholders’ desire for more input on board makeup.

Support for corporate responsibility proposals also continues to grow.

To read the full proxy report please click here.

What are you most excited about for the new year?

An article ran on GreenBiz.com on Monday that asked executives from companies that have been featured in the news this year what they’re most excited about for 2011, with regard to opportunities and challenges for sustainability for their respective companies. Among them were Shaw Industries, PepsiCo, Sodexo, Eaton, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Panasonic, Nike, Clorox, Starbucks, Aveda and Siemens.

To read the full article with everyone’s responses to this question, please click here.

We’re interested in what you have to say. What are your biggest opportunities and challenges for sustainability for your company in 2011? What are you most excited about? What are you most concerned about? Let us know!

GRI Focal Point USA hits the ground running

The GRI Focal Point USA office, led by Mike Wallace, has been building momentum since its announcement on October 13, 2010. The office is supported by donations from the Big 4 accounting firms (KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and E&Y), and is being hosted by The Conference Board in NYC.

Over the past year Wallace has been actively responding to the growing demand for ESG reporting in the USA through a range of outreach/engagement efforts, according to the press release. Since the announcement the office has participated in the Harvard Integrated Reporting conference and e-book (The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: Reflections and Next Steps), as well as presentations at events such as the GreenGov Symposium, NAEM Board of Regents, Triple Bottom Line Reporting, Justmeans – Social Media, SRI in the Rockies and the Canadian Investor Relations Institute.

The office and its founding sponsors are hosting the formal 100 Day Event for its inception on January 31, 2011. The event will highlight the latest developments in the sustainability and ESG reporting field, as well as outline plans for continued efforts in the U.S.

To read the full press release click here. To stay connected with the office’s latest developments, join the LinkedIn group or browse the web pages.

GRI opens New York Office, headed by Mike Wallace

The Global Reporting Initiative is opening an office in New York tomorrow, October 13, 2010, to be headed by former GRI Director, Sustainability Reporting Framework Mike Wallace.  The office’s official name is Focal Point USA, and was not only established to provide support to companies that produce sustainability reports, but also aims to increase the number of companies that produce reports.

Further, this new office will work to improve the consistency and quality of reporting, as well as increase organizations’ input into developing new guidelines for reporting.  The ‘big four’ accounting firms: Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have agreed to provide donations to sponsor the new office for its first two years.

In addition, The Conference Board has agreed to host the new office pro bono during these two years.  The Conference Board has a Center for Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability, and sees its relationship with the GRI as an asset to the Center’s core values.

The GRI hopes to make sustainability reporting mainstream by 2015.  They’ve been engaging more closely with companies, financial institutions, leading business associations, investors and government agencies in the U.S. over the past year on ways to better integrate ESG data into financial reporting.  Over the next 10 years, the GRI will be working with several other organizations to develop an integrated reporting framework.

Wallace will have staff on the ground in the U.S. to provide better support to organizations who produce reports by helping to identify best practices that are tailored to U.S. organizations’ needs while still complying with the GRI guidelines. 

To celebrate this extension of the GRI in the U.S., and to provide organizational stakeholders (OS) with the opportunity to meet Wallace, events will be planned for early 2011.  Nikki McKean-Wood, OS Program Manager, will join Wallace in the new office. 

BrownFlynn is proud to be the first U.S.-certified training partner of the GRI, and is looking forward to working with Wallace and McKean-Wood.  This is an exciting time for the GRI and sustainability reporting in the U.S.

For more information please click here.

New authority on integrated reporting solution to CSR?

Michael Muyot, President & Founder of CRD Analytics, posted on Justmeans yesterday about the recent announcement of a new, single global authority on integrated reporting. The International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) was formed to create a universally recognized reporting framework for integrated reporting.

This past December The Prince of Wales convened a high level meeting of investors, accounting bodies, companies, decision-makers in standard setting and UN representatives. An agreement was made that the Global Reporting Initiative and the Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) should work together with other organizations to establish an international body that oversees the creation of a universally recognized integrated reporting framework that connects financial and sustainability reporting.