What's Happening

By Mary Minette
Mercy Investments Consultant

Image attribution: kris krüg, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - Gulf of Mexico, CC BY-SA 2.0

August 19, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – In the 2023-2024 proxy season, the Portfolio Advisory Board (PAB) filed 19 shareholder proposals. Eight were withdrawn for agreement; eight went to a vote; two were omitted from the proxy statement; and one (Smith & Wesson) will be voted on in September. 

According to the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), overall shareholder filings decreased from 460 in 2023 to 400 in 2024. Climate change continues to be the top issue area for filing, but human rights and workers’ rights were the second highest issue area filed this year. 

The top industries receiving shareholder proposals in 2025 were banks and oil and gas companies. Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, ExxonMobil, and Chevron continued to receive the most shareholder filings. In 2024, the PAB filed at all of the above companies except for Chevron.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) allowed companies to omit 52% more proposals from their proxy statements in 2024 than in 2023. Two proposals filed by the PAB were omitted from proxies. Both proposals requested more detail from large U.S. banks regarding their climate transition plans.

The PAB filed shareholder proposals with five pharmaceutical companies concerning their patenting practices and how they impact patient access to affordable medicines. One proposal went to a vote, and four were withdrawn for agreement. Notably, Pfizer agreed to make significant improvements in its Human Rights Policy as well as committing to establish a human rights due diligence process around its pricing and access initiatives in the next 12 months. Gilead agreed to provide additional disclosure, including listing all the in-force patents it currently has on its top five selling drugs.
  
The PAB co-filed a resolution asking Exxon to issue a report evaluating the economic, human, and environmental impacts of a worst-case oil spill from its expanding operations offshore of Guyana. During a call with investors, Exxon shared additional information on how it is enhancing process safety and managing spills. The company also shared that it has assessed the costs of responding to a Guyana spill with an independent third party, assuring the company that $2 billion would cover the cost of the spill. Based on the information shared by the company, investors decided to withdraw the proposal. 

However, in January, ExxonMobil took the extreme step of suing two small shareholders to keep a climate change proposal off their proxy ballot, rather than going through the SEC “no action” process to ask for approval to omit the proposal. The company elected to continue the suit even after the shareholders agreed to withdraw the proposal and took an aggressive stance against other shareholders with proposals on its proxy ballot, questioning whether they were “real” investors or merely activists with an “extreme agenda.” 

In response, several ExxonMobil shareholders filed exempt solicitations urging their fellow shareholders to vote against members of the board, including CEO Darren Woods and lead independent director Joseph Hooley.  

Despite these actions indicating shareholder disapproval of company leadership, ExxonMobil continued with its aggressive stance and its lawsuit. The lawsuit was finally dismissed by a court in Texas after the shareholder proponent agreed in writing not to refile their climate proposal with the company in the future. 
 

August 16, 2024, Adrian, Michigan – All are welcome to join the mindfulness community in monthly Days of Mindfulness, held in person on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. Sister Esther Kennedy, OP, a Dominican Sister of Adrian as well as a spiritual director and retreat director, conducts these days.

Upcoming Days of Mindfulness are as follows:

•    Saturday, September 7, 2024 – The Myth of Permanence. What we experience each day is dependent on many causes and conditions. We experience a particular emotion or mood and then it dissolves, to be replaced by another emotion or mood. Contemplation helps us to see the impermanence of these states of mind.

•    Saturday, October 5, 2024 – Coming to our Senses. While we don’t know where life is taking us, Jon Kabat-Zinn says the challenge is coming to our senses, both individually and as a species. The cultivation of mindfulness is the first step toward developing an awareness of both heart and mind.

•    Saturday, November 2, 2024 – Lost in Thought. It is easy to get trapped in our thoughts, which weave stories conditioned by the past. But underneath all the fluctuating thoughts and emotions is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought.

•    Saturday, December 7, 2024 – Cultivating Warmth of Heart. In silent moments, we grow the courage to hear, with the heart-mind, the voice inside us, connecting us to all beings and the whole web of life.

The costs of each session is $35, which includes lunch. Registration is required. Visit www.webercenter.org and click on “programs,” call 517-266-4000, or email [email protected]. 

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. Traveling east on Siena Heights Drive, pass the Adrian Rea Literacy Center and turn left just before the solar panel-covered carport. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.