Vanguard announced the publishing of its Investment Stewardship 2020 Annual Report.  The report shares the highlights of the asset manager’s engagements with its portfolio companies, observations and voting statistics relating to the 12-month period ended June 30, 2020. The firm’s key focus areas are primarily climate change and diversity. Vanguard believes environmental, social and governmental (ESG) matters came into sharper focus during the 2020 proxy season because of certain events and circumstances, including the…

The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) announced its launch last week for trading stocks on its platform and listing companies on the exchange. As the name suggests, the exchange aims to list companies that desire to create value over time. The LTSE’s listing requirements take a “principles-based approach” to long-termism (in contrast to a one-size-fits-all approach) requiring listed companies to pledge to operate consistently with five principles: Stakeholders. Long-term focused companies should consider a broader group…

Five framework- and standard-setting institutions announced a joint statement on September 11, 2020 reflecting their collaborative vision to develop a comprehensive global corporate reporting system for disclosing sustainability topics such as climate change, biodiversity, wages and skills. The participants include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). Relevance to Companies.  The overarching purpose of the…

The SEC’s Asset Management Advisory Committee hosted a meeting on July 16, 2020 to discuss the current state of diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the asset management industry.  SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman and Director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management Dalia Blass opened the meeting.  Each expressed an interest in understanding why minority- and women-owned firms make up only approximately 1.3% of the total assets under management in the global…

Updates in the past two months to voluntary ESG disclosure frameworks raise questions for companies about these overlapping and arguably competing standards. GRI Launches Sector-Specific Disclosure Framework On July 8, 2020, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) published an initial draft of a standard for ESG disclosures for the oil & gas industry. The draft, open for public comment until October 6, 2020, marks the first sector-specific ESG disclosure framework created by GRI, which, unlike the…

Davis Polk ESG co-heads, Joseph A. Hall and Betty M. Huber, and Katherine J. Brennan and Connor Kuratek of Marsh & McLennan Companies are authors of the 13th edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide: Corporate Governance 2020: Legal Liability for ESG Disclosures – Investor Pressure, State of Play and Practical Recommendations, the second chapter in the guide. The chapter discusses litigation related to ESG voluntary disclosures and what companies can do to…

Each proxy season, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”) constructs a peer group for each company prior to the company’s next proxy disclosure. ISS’ methodology for constructing the peer group is based in part on the company’s self-selected peer group. ISS recently invited submissions from certain U.S. and Canadian companies with annual meetings scheduled between September 16, 2020 and January 31, 2021. The submission deadline is next Friday at 8:00 PM EDT, July 17, 2020. As one…