We highly recommend the new report from Sidley, Insightia, and Okapi on proxy votes in 2021. Some highlights:

The 2021 proxy season was revolutionary in many respects, as investors used their voting powers to communicate their expectations to issuers on a variety of concerns. Investors exhibited renewed interest in a myriad of ESG issues, including climate change, racial equality, and worker protections, as the pandemic emphasized the importance of robust risk oversight.

From Amy Borrus, Executive Director of the Council of Institutional Investors:

We generally support improved transparency across a range of areas, including climate change, board diversity, key workforce metrics, and political spending, to name but a few. CII generally agrees with chair Gensler that investors want and need consistent, comparable information to make informed voting decisions.

Sustainability reports are nice to have but it’s just not possible to read these reports and accurately compare progress across companies or sectors. Our members’ views on what constitutes as decision-useful disclosure varies widely. For example, some institutional investors want the SEC to require companies to publicly report on their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, while some would be happy with just Scope 1 and 2 emissions disclosure….