SfC launches its engagement report 2020
Our engagement report is focused on tax justice, climate change and human rights.
Aurélie Baudhuin, president of SfC: «In 2020 we have been a driver of innovation despite the pandemic, filing the first climate resolution ever in France or engaging a sovereign country on biological weapons. SfC confirms its pioneering role as engagement network».
SfC – Shareholders for Change, European network for investor engagement founded in 2017, released its engagement report 2020 in Paderborn today, during its online winter meeting.
The 11 members of the network, with a total of over €28bn AUM, have jointly engaged 100 companies and one country, most of them in Europe, filing resolutions and voting at annual general meetings (AGMs) or asking questions in conference calls and via mail.
Most questions were on climate change, human rights and tax transparency, the three main areas of engagement for SfC.
While most engagement initiatives (70.2%) are still ongoing, 13.5% of them were completed with success, while 2.9% were not successful, because the companies did not respond. In this case, each SfC members can decide whether to divest from a company’s securities or to escalate the engagement in another way in the next AGM season.
«2020 was a particularly challenging year for our network due to the pandemic. In most EU countries it wasn’t possible to physically attend meetings with companies. », said Aurélie Baudhuin, president of SfC and deputy general manager of Meeschaert AM, one of the founding members. «Nevertheless, we have been able to confirm our pioneering role as a network, submitting the first climate resolution in France, at Total’s AGM, or engaging the Namibian government, asking it to accede to the UN Biological Weapons Convention. In May we have submitted our resolution on living wages at the annual general meeting of fashion giant H&M via live streaming».
SfC winter meeting, spanning over two days, was meant to be held in Paderborn, Germany, where Bank für Kirche und Caritas, one of SfC’s founding members, is based. The whole agenda has been shifted online due to the Covid-19 emergency, including training sessions focussed on climate related issues in the reinsurance industry by the German NGO Urgewald and by Plenum Investments, a catastrophe bond asset manager as well as an engagement dialogue with the German re-insurance company Hannover RE.