Proxy season is approaching, a time when the shareholders of major corporations get to use resolutions to weigh in on the company activities that are important to them.
Take one seemingly obscure threat: “antimicrobial overuse.”
The term may be unknown to many investors now, but the overuse of antibiotics threatens the public’s health and threatens the bottom line of companies like McDonald's, said Sara E. Murphy, chief strategy officer at the Shareholder Commons, a non-profit advocacy organization based in Northampton, Mass.
“Investors underestimate their power even with large companies,” Murphy said in an interview with Financial Advisor magazine.
Her organization works for what it calls “diversified investors,” those who hold assets in multiple companies, and it has helped investors file shareholder resolutions with not just McDonald’s but State Street, Meta Platforms and other major corporations in an effort “to end extractive practices that threaten the financial interests of shareholders.” The idea in the end, says the group, is to make the economy more resilient and promote more transparency about corporations’ actions.
“Most investors own a broad range of securities,” Murphy said, “but individual companies sometimes pursue profits at the expense of their diversified shareholders. These proposals are designed to preserve the systems that support both the economy and their portfolios, but which are threatened by the social or environmental costs of certain corporate behavior.”
For instance, if people overuse antibiotics, it exacerbates their resistance, and that puts the whole economy at risk, according to the Shareholder Commons. Thus the organization’s shareholder proposal calls on McDonald’s to follow World Health Organization guidelines for safe antimicrobial use.
“Shareholders are taking action to remove members of the boards of directors for companies that do not comply with shareholders’ goals,” Murphy said, “and they are demonstrating that real world change can be achieved.”
The group has also filed a proposal that asks Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, for a report on whether executive compensation is aligned with efforts to promote positive activities for communities. “By prioritizing web traffic and user engagement to maximize profits, Meta often puts users, workers, political stability and public health at risk,” the Shareholder Commons said in its filing.
“In an increasingly interdependent global economy, diversified shareholders must analyze the financial effect of companies’ social and environmental impacts on their entire portfolio,” the organization said.
Such shareholder resolutions will help the public realize the dramatic risks that are being posed by the actions of many large corporations, Murphy said.