We are a European network for shareholder engagement
The Shareholders for Change network (SFC) is a group of institutional investors involved in active engagement with corporations to enhance a sustainable development as an essential element of their role as bond – and shareholders.
In addition SFC will engage with institutions, proxy advisors, associations and other public or private organisations to support the development of sustainable financial markets and a global economy aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Framework.
WORKERS AND HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGHOUT COMPANIES' SUPPLY CHAINS
It is crucial for our network to foster improvement of working conditions in producing countries. We shall work to prevent and interrupt any form of human rights abuses, including modern slavery and local population displacement.
GLOBAL HEALTH AND NUTRITION
As one of the emerging challenges of our time, this topic strikingly demonstrates the intersectionality of ESG issues, linking together problems of food chain paradigms and their environmental sustainability, sustainable agriculture and human rights as well as equal access to safe drinking water, a healthy diet, an affordable health system, obesity prevention and to fair marketing practices.
PRODUCTION AND TRADING OF WEAPONS SYSTEMS
Arms production and trading are today as linked with finance and banking as ever: they form a relevant part of global trading and economics to the extent that we can say that warfare, forced migrations and the displacement of people are a matter of economic interests and finance. That is why our network will focus on this sector while critically engaging corporations involved in this field of activity.
TAX AVOIDANCE AND INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION
The network is committed to fight international corruption and agrees on focusing on the promotion of more transparency in relation to the presence of companies' subsidiaries in tax havens or countries that facilitate the creation of shell companies. The network will also engage financial institutions that foster aggressive tax avoidance possibilities with their products and services. Tax transparency through the promotion of country-by-country reporting by multinational companies will also be one of the priorities of the network’s shareholding agenda.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The results of the COP21 in Paris are currently under threat, both because of the negative attitude of the new American leadership and because of the general insufficiency of activity by other key world leaders. Nevertheless, a more open attitude to the need for strong and continuous action aimed to fight climate change is arising in other important countries, such as China, Canada, France, etc. Also, and most significantly, action is urged by the public opinion. Therefore, the network agrees on focusing - particularly during the engagement with companies involved in electricity production, transportation or in the coal and oil sectors – on the issues of climate change and energy transition as one of the most urgent and fundamental fields of its activity.
SfC organises collaborative participation in European companies’ Annual General Meetings (AGMs) as well as coordinated voting or submission of questions to their boards and managements.
Our main issues:
We coordinate dialogue with companies’ management by organising meetings and preparing letters and case studies. We promote dialogue and cooperation between organisation and movements of civil society and Sfc, with a view to improving the impact of the active and critical engagement activities.
SfC promotes dialogue and cooperation between organisations and stakeholders of the financial markets, such as ethical rating agencies, regulators, etc. in providing critical oversight and scrutiny when challenging controversial corporate practices and to improve aspects of sustainable financial market.
Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow The importance of proxy voting continues to grow, particularly in light of increasing shareholder investment in mutual funds, both actively and passively managed,[…]
On 31 January, Italian SfC member Fondazione Finanza Etica attended the annual general meeting of ThyssenKrupp as a representative of Shareholders for Change and together with the Dachverband der Kritischen Aktionärinnen und Aktionäre, the[…]
In March 2023, Shareholders for Change alongside other 20 Swiss and international institutional investors sent a co-signed letter on Human Rights and Environmental due diligence to members of the Swiss Parliament. Our[…]
In recent weeks, our Italian member Fondazione Finanza Etica and the Secretariat of Shareholders for Change collaborated on the drafting of the ‘Principles for Transition Investing’, promoted by the organisation Better[…]
In 2024, the 20 members of the network, with a total of over €48bn AUM, jointly engaged 172 companies and one institution, most of them in Europe, filing resolutions and[…]
At the end of November, the EU Defence Industrial Investment Forum, “Investing in the EU’s defence & security: a new political priority”, hosted by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry[…]
FOUNDING MEMBERS
The 7 founding members, for a total of over €22bn AUM, are:
