The members of the network of institutional investors that promotes responsible investment and corporate compliance with ESG best practice met on Thursday and Friday at the offices of Ethos in Geneva. The meeting provided an opportunity to take stock of current and future engagement initiatives with the target companies.
The member institutions of the Shareholders for Change network meet twice a year (including once in person). This week, nearly 30 people met for two half-days at the Geneva offices of the Ethos Foundation. On the agenda: discussions and exchanges on future and current engagement initiatives with companies targeted by the network and its members as part of their shareholder dialogue activities.
This summer session once again covered a wide range of topics, including shareholder rights, in particular voting or the filing resolutions at general meetings, child labor (particularly in cocoa fields), the financing of companies active in the production or marketing of armaments, and corporate tax transparency. The meeting was also an opportunity to present the “Investor Policy Dialogue on Deforestation”, an engagement initiative Ethos and the members of the Ethos Engagement Pool International have been participating in since 2022.
A shared vision and values
Created in 2017, Shareholders for Change is a network of institutional investors that actively engage companies, mainly European, to promote good environmental, social and governance practices and the development of responsible financial markets. By the end of 2023, it had 17 members with total assets of over EUR 35 billion.
Shareholders for Change members are bound by a shared vision and values across a wide range of issues. These shared values are at the heart of their engagement activities and form an essential part of their own business practices.
An important objective of the network is the collaborative participation in the annual general meetings of European companies, as well as the submission of questions to boards of directors on subjects such as workers' rights and human rights, tax practices and fairness, or CO2 emissions and climate change.
