Collabrative engagement and voting
In order to maximise influence and achieve economies of scale, large charities and fund managers may conduct their engagement strategies in collaboration with other investors.
In this section:
Why engage or vote collaboratively?
Forms of collaborative engagement and voting:
Examples of collaborative initiatives
Why engage or vote collaboratively?
In order to achieve maximum influence, economies of scale and to pool resources, expertise and ‘investor power’ investors and fund managers may wish to collaborate with others.
This can be particularly useful for investors and fund managers wishing to engage with companies overseas.
Collaborative engagement is of most relevance to large charities with sufficient resources as well as fund managers.
Forms of collaborative engagement and voting:
- combining shareholder power
- ppooling resources to research issues
- sharing objectives – which may involve choosing a single issue or set of issues that affects a specific group of companies and engaging with the Companies and/or drafting shareholder resolutions to place before an AGM
Examples of collaborative initiatives include:
Collaborative engagement is undertaken on behalf of groups of investors by organisations such as the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) in the UK and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) in the US.
Fund managers can also engage collaboratively, through initiatives such as
- The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Engagement Clearinghouse is the first global collaborative forum for investors to work together and share knowledge and resources to take action on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. PRI signatories use this password protected resource to post and seek collaboration for their ongoing engagement activities, from individual proxy proposals to large scale letter campaigns, and to learn and participate in other signatories’ proposals.
- The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) provides a secretariat for the world's largest institutional investor collaboration on the business implications of climate change. Institutional investors collaborate to collectively sign a single global request for disclosure of information on Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
- Institutional Investor’s Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) is a forum for collaboration between pension funds and other institutional investors on issues related to climate change. The IIGCC seeks to promote better understanding of the implications of climate change amongst its members and other institutional investors, and to encourage companies and markets in which IIGCC members invest to address any material risks and opportunities to their businesses associated with climate change and a shift to a lower carbon economy.
- The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) exists to provide an investor-led network for the exchange of views and information about corporate governance issues internationally; to examine corporate governance principles and practices; and to develop and encourage adherence to corporate governance standards and guidelines.
