U.S. Shareholder Proposals: A Decade in Motion

Shareholder proposals, often seen as a bellwether of investor sentiment and preferences, have gone through a significant shift over the past decade. The number of proposals on environmental and social topics exploded, surpassing the governance and compensation topics that had dominated the discourse in mid-2010s. In recent years, discussions related to environmental, social, and corporate governance (“ESG”) risks have become highly politicized, including attempts to politicize the shareholder proposal process. However, investors show little to no interest in proposals that advocate a political viewpoint without demonstrable economic relevance. ISS-Corporate reviewed the data of shareholder proposals submitted at U.S. companies from July 2014 to June 2024 and examined how shareholder proposals as well as corporate behavior and disclosures on sustainability and corporate governance have changed over the decade.