This spring, a small hedge fund called Engine No. 1 led a shareholder revolt against Exxon, one of the biggest oil companies in the world. Despite being a new firm with relatively meager assets, they震惊了世界by rallying shareholders to eject existing Exxon directors who have ignored the threat of climate change and replace them with clean energy experts.

这一标志性的胜利标志着股东参与的新时代，这是投资管理的核心活动，这可能是可持续投资策略的关键。

随着可持续投资从利基的利益发展到标题趋势，达到了历史最高水平215亿美元added to sustainable funds in the first quarter of 2021, investment strategies that prioritize investment stewardship activities, including shareholder engagement and proxy voting, are propelling its influence. Indeed, shareholder engagement is gaining steam as a tactic to move businesses toward more climate-friendly practices.

但是什么是投资管理？股东如何与公司互动以提高回报和可持续性？这些策略如何发展，它们如何帮助重塑金融世界？在这里，我们列出了基础知识。

谁是股东？

公开持有的公司通常由首席执行官经营 - 但首席执行官向由股东选举产生的董事会报告。

这些股东在公司中拥有权益（股票）。股东希望该公司做得很好，有人会说公司的整个重点也是他们也要做得很好。

由于401K和其他低成本投资格式的兴起，股东的类型比过去更多。同时，令人难以置信的转向所谓的被动投资，一个人将资金投入了追踪指数而不是积极尝试选择获胜股的中介基金，这导致了一些拥有大量投资管理公司市场。Vanguard，Blackrock和State Street的“三巨头”资产经理主要遵循“被动”战略。综上所述，它们构成了largest shareholder in 88% of all S&P 500 companies。

机构投资者，例如大学，州和城市养老基金，也持有大量股票：有些80％的公共股票市场，其中大部分是通过三巨头投入的。

How can shareholders advance sustainability through investment stewardship?

联合国负责投资原则（PRI）定义投资管理as “the use of influence by institutional investors to maximize overall long-term value including the value of common economic, social and environmental assets, on which returns and clients’ and beneficiaries’ interests depend.”

关心这些问题的股东有几次涉及对公司绩效的担忧。他们可以通过收入电话来影响公司管理，选举董事会，这些董事会可以替换高管，并取决于他们拥有的股票多少，他们有能力对股东决议提交和投票。

股东决议表明股东希望公司采取的方向。他们被认为是最严重的投资管理策略，也是对话没有导致所需变化的最后手段。在公司的年度会议期间，他们对股东进行业务活动的最新情况进行了投票。

Shareholders use these tools to express concerns about all matters of corporate strategy, but in recent years more and more shareholders have used them to push companies they believe are exposed to or creating climate risks. Climate risks — bothphysical risks从气候变化和从转换到低碳经济的影响的影响必威官网是真的吗 - 几乎每个公司都存在，但是投资者一般认为这些风险的行为不够快。

A growing movement argues that environmental, social and governance, or ESG, risks are “材料”或“相关”与未来的性能。这就是为什么股东决议越来越多地推动公司改善或纠正其行动，因为外部性会影响与ESG相关的问题，例如避免奴隶劳动，雇用更多的女高管，减少碳排放，并改善环境和社会成果并避免风险。

Who organizes shareholder resolutions?

股东决议需要大量资源和时间来协调。结果，它们通常由大型机构投资者组织。小型投资者很难驾驶官僚流程，而从历史上看，被动管理人员不愿意发起他们，而是宁愿收取较低的费用，而不是通过参与来追逐他们的投资边际优势。

但是，即使这些大型投资者仍然需要协调他们的代理投票activities in order to result in positive stewardship results. In order for a shareholder resolution to pass, investors who hold the company’s stock will vote on the resolution and it must receive at least 51% of votes in support of the resolution. Even large asset owners and managers cannot reach the 51% mark alone, which is why collective engagement efforts for ESG-related shareholder resolutions are increasing and key to positive stewardship outcomes.

为什么过去的股东参与度不佳？

您持有的股份越多，关注管理就会越多地付出您的担忧。几十年来，大资产所有者和经理根本没有尽可能地认真对待气候变化和其他ESG问题。必威官网是真的吗

Shareholder resolutions on climate change were sometimes filed, but often didn’t get the votes they needed. This contributed to the fossil fuel divestment movement, which posited that it was better to sell off stocks with climate-negative impacts than try to change fossil fuel companies’ business models (and the独自销售的威胁可能足以改变某些公司的想法）。此外，股东参与仅适用于上市公司。许多私营公司（包括为使用化石燃料的贡献的国有企业）没有很多股东或透明度，使他们促使他们推动变革。

由于代理投票的官僚性质，除非您有很多钱，否则在许多不同的投资者中进行协调，否则该星球的股东决议很少。与环境有关的股东决议的成功率仅10年前就不到20％。

Why is shareholder engagement gaining steam today?

如果有足够资本的投资者出现并提出需求，公司就会更有可能倾听。近年来，正是大型投资经理（包括三巨头）越来越关注气候风险。必威官网是真的吗

Before the last few years, active managers were more involved in investment stewardship than their passive peers due to taking a more involved investment approach in general. Yet recently, passive managers are becoming more active stewards of capital. Since passive managers are “永久的通用所有者” of the market, they are particularly exposed to growing, systemic risks like climate change, which threaten financial stability writ large, as a美国商品期货交易委员会去年终结。

The uptick in active stewardship from passive managers, including the Big Three, is notable after the 2020 proxy voting season — perhaps due to immense public pressure aimed at their size, influence and past inaction. Prior to 2021, thereticence of the “Big Three” passive managers was notable。然后，贝莱德首席执行官拉里·芬克（Larry Fink）确定气候变化是重中之重必威官网是真的吗保持持久的财务价值2021给首席执行官的信。一年一年，贝莱德将其支持股东提议的利率翻了一番从17％到35％, which can be attributed in part to激进主义者在黑石上的压力和其他投资经理。

就第一引擎而言，他们成功地向美国一些最大的养老基金求婚。反过来，“三巨头”支持了其在埃克森美孚公司的决议，从而取得了成功的结果，其中一号发动机本身仅拥有0.02％的股票。这项协调的努力驱逐了现有董事，并用新董事替换了新董事，并以可再生能源的经验取代了他们，这是从实际的枢纽到石油巨头过时的商业模式的差距，但开始了Morningstar所谓的“股东驱动的气候治理必威官网亚洲体育必威官网是真的吗。”但这不仅仅是埃克森美孚的第一引擎 -26 climate resolutions in the 2021 voting season received an average of 51% support。

Other examples this year show that sometimes shareholder resolutions don’t need to go to a vote to get the goods. Proposals askedCostco, Syscoand温迪的衡量和减少其对气候变化的总贡献。必威官网是真的吗由于“实质性实施”，每个人都被撤回，证明投资者的压力使管理层制定了切实的计划，以在股东决议投票之前改善其可持续性行为。

股东参与的下一步是什么？

被动巨人不能将火炬单独带到51％的支撑标记。尽管是标准普尔500年公司的最大所有者，但他们很少是多数股权所有者，因此只能自行影响太大。但是，资产经理和大型机构资产所有者之间的集体参与度已获得关注。

必威官网是真的吗气候行动100+协调投资者与公司互动，推动他们减少排放并改善气候披露。必威官网是真的吗它的数百个签署人拥有管理的55万亿美元资产，使其成为高管不能忽略的集团。除其他successes，气必威官网是真的吗候行动100+已经通过了一项解决方案雪佛龙停止游说反对气候行动必威官网是真的吗and for南方公司为2050年设定零净目标。

甚至个人投资者也可以加入这项工作。例如，发动机1号recently launched a low-cost exchange-traded fund, $VOTE，这使个人可以投资于公司参与是投资策略关键的多元化基金。对于大型和小型投资者来说，被动投资正在不断发展，以在管理工作中发挥积极作用。

所有这些都是在对可持续投资膨胀兴趣的背景下进行的，创造了什么CERES president Mindy Lubber called a “sea change”支持ESG股东决议。据报道晨星。随着越来越多的经理将其资金推销为对环境风险的精明资金，投资者将检查哪些人通过支持ESG股东决议来真正遵循他们的言论。

Successful stewardship outcomes require the collaboration of all types of investors. Climate change will continue to be paramount in upcoming proxy voting seasons as investors and companies recognize the materiality of climate-related financial risks.