The 2022 proxy season is the busiest ever, with shareholders set to vote on a flurry of new environmental and social proposals. It is also a turning point for shareholders hoping to push companies on ESG, as more ambitious shareholder proposals meet concerns about the global economy.

Shareholders submitted a record number of proposals to U.S. companies this year, riding the tailwinds of the2020欧洲杯罗马尼亚主场并从证券交易委员会的修订指导这使得公司很难限制投票的建议。一些长期股东借此机会推动公司提高对环境和社会问题的野心，但是这个年度会议季节也使股东不愿支持那些更雄心勃勃的建议。例子：政治保守的股东团体submitted a record number of their own proposals this year, seeking to rein in the process.

但是，这个代理季节正在前进，而且远非往常。投资者正在审查更高数量的提案，并查看从社会正义到碳会计的新焦点领域的大胆建议。

首先数字：

• 根据投资者情报公司跟踪的数据，今年有924个ESG提案已提交给公司，这是创纪录的数字Georgeson。乔治森说，由于通常在公司和股东进行谈判之后撤回一些建议，因此，当一切都说完之后，大约有621个建议可能会在2022年在美国公司的股东面前提出，高于2021年的大约400名。
• Shareholder proposals on environmental and social issues are getting less support in early voting.Semler Brossy报告与去年同期相比，今年迄今为止从股东获得多数支持的社会和环境提案的数量分别下降了11个百分点和20个百分点。
• 73 percent of 60 institutional investors said they expected ESG oversight to be a bigger issue in their votes for corporate directors this year, according to a survey from the董事会事务中心，信号投资者广泛地寻找方法来增强对公司的影响力之外的建议。

Proxy season is always a sign of the times

可以预见，管理中的ESG资金的增加导致股东参与度的总体增加。面对熊股市，通货膨胀压力和衰退警告，机构投资者这个替代季节面临着更大的压力，他们的客户表明他们如何与ESG的公司交往，无论是通过投票，提交建议还是与董事会和投资者关系会议，团队。

Proxy voting is in many ways the essence of shareholder stewardship — the one chance a year for investors with long-term holdings to share their views with companies. Heading into a year with some economic pressure, there might be more short-term activists and more investors that vote with their feet, so ESG-focused shareholders are trying harder to make sure their points get across this year.

今年的一个不太戏剧性的代理季节可能意味着股东和公司正在更容易找到共同点。

It would be a mistake to focus too much on the numbers in this year’s annual meeting season. In a difficult macro environment, where U.S. market regulators are seriously planning tobegin requiring comparable climate disclosuresacross the market and shareholders might face更艰难的规则to submit proposals, shareholder proposals are set to act more like a temperature check on ESG issues, regardless of whether they garner enough votes to pass.

股东建议总是面临很长的机会，大多数支持是该规则的例外。当提案获得的支持少于多数支持时，这并不是失败。这只是一个迹象表明，出于多种原因，股东更有可能弃权或拒绝对该主题的投票。股东的提议仅获得10％或20％的支持，而投资者的支持并未“投票”或“被拒绝” - 他们通常仍然足够强大，可以向投资者关心特定问题的董事会发送信息。

获胜（非约束）股东提案可能意味着公司必须发布报告，更改政策或进行审计。一年后，结果常常毫不客气地到达，但是投资者通常会为了获得投票的股东提议而奋斗，因为他们知道他们可能不会获胜。在一个充满挑战的宏观经济环境中，最大程度地利用了股东的建议是作为众所周知的“煤矿中的金丝雀”，这是对公司对问题的领导的有力提醒。

What shareholders are backing in 2022

环境的

在这个代理季节之前，股东对环境提案的支持与ESG一样稳定，在2021年为404个提案的平均支持达到40％的支持，according to data firm Broadridge.That support level is likely to decline this year, particularly as companies face so many more proposals.亚马逊股东今年投票上有15项股东建议，字母股东面临17个建议，但没有人获得多数支持。

尽管提交记录，但对环境的股东建议似乎正在经历减弱的支持。根据乔治逊（Georgeson）的说法，股东今年向公司提出了39％的环境建议，许多提案本质上更具侵略性。提案更频繁地要求公司增加排放报告，包括范围3排放，而金融服务公司面临的提案要求他们停止融资化石燃料。"Say on climate"提案要求公司披露排放及其过渡到零净的计划。但是到目前为止，很少有这些建议已经通过，因为贝莱德警告说，今年支持环境建议的可能性较小，因为它发现了它们too prescriptive。

这并不一定意味着公司或股东不太关心环境，但可能表明，现有的公司环境披露将面临围绕净零净和新监管框架的新承诺而面临的估计。

对于长期投资者而言，这个代理季节的重点是对双级股份所有权结构的担忧，这些股份所有权结构往往会使早期高管和创始人对他们的问题进行更大的投票。

Earlier environmental shareholder proposals used to ask for simpler tasks — such as creating a sustainability report — but over 92 percent of the S&P 500 and 70 percent of the Russell 1000 had already createdsustainability reportsby last year. So this year’s proposals focused on more specific issues, asking companies to take it up a notch. Several companies faced proposals about whether their climate lobbying was aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement and requests to increase reporting on Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. Toyota received a shareholder proposal urging it to在电动汽车上移动更快。Williams-Sonoma received a proposal asking it to describe howpurchased carbon credits适合其净零会计，但最终被撤回。

A handful of environment proposals still got broad support from investors. Amidst growing losses from environmental catastrophes, several要求保险公司评估温室气体排放associated with their underwriting, investments and insurance policies. Proposals received majority support at Chubb, Travelers and 47 percent support from independent shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway.

Social

As companies face a tight employment market, a lingering pandemic and broader societal concerns about social and racial justice issues, human capital issues got a lot more attention from shareholders in submitted proposals this year.

一系列建议要求公司对其员工或民权审计进行种族平等审核，或者披露有关其计划和政策有关多样性，公平和包容性的更多政策。以社会为本的提案还要求公司解决基于种族或性别的薪酬差距，并评估其性骚扰政策是否有效。今年到目前为止，已经对这些建议进行了投票，而许多其他提案已被撤回，因为公司和股东似乎愿意在这一领域达成协议。股东关于生殖权利的建议也是今年的新事物，Lowe的提案获得了32％的支持。

治理

While environmental and social proposals draw a lot of attention, governance-related proposals on executive compensation and corporate boards were also a focus during this proxy season.

According to Georgeson, governance proposals this year focused more on issues such as separation of the role of the board chair and CEO or asking companies to keep workforce compensation in mind when setting CEO compensation. That’s a switch from years past, when board diversity proposals dominated and reflects new norms around the diversity of public company boards. Nearly half of all new directors appointed in the S&P 500 last year were people of color and 43 percent were women,根据Spencer Stuart的说法。

对于长期投资者而言，这个代理季节的重点是对双级股份所有权结构的担忧，这些股份所有权结构往往会使早期高管和创始人对他们的问题进行更大的投票。英国和美国的养老基金launched a campaignagainst that ownership structure, and it’s likely to continue. Proxy adviser机构股东服务曾表示，通常会建议从2023年开始的所有具有不平等投票权和多级股票结构的公司的董事预扣票。

This proxy season might end up looking a little muted compared to 2021, when 18 climate proposals received majority support and there was a lot of excitement around Engine No. 1’s successful proxy fight at Exxon Mobil. However, asCeres在这个年度会议季节开始时，由于公司与股东支持者之间的协议，在投票开始之前，超过100项与气候有关的提案（约有一半的提议）在投票开始之前就进行了谈判。今年的一个不太戏剧性的代理季节可能意味着股东和公司正在更容易找到共同点。