In My Food / On My Skin in Proxy Voting
How Does Health Appear In Proxy Voting?
Companies have been held more accountable to external public health implications related to their products. Topics include pesticide and antibiotic use in food, chemicals in body care, and intentional marketing towards food sales.
Recent example:
Pepsi faced shareholders asking the company to publish a report on external public health effects of their products. Supported by the idea that many underlying health conditions suspected of making people vulnerable to the pandemic are also associated with elevated dietary intake of sugar: obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic kidney and liver diseases.
Gun Policy in Proxy Voting
How Does Gun Policy Appear In Proxy Voting?
From gun manufacturers being asked to complete a human rights report on the impact of their products, to big banks considering their role played in enabling purchases of firearms and ammunition, these issues have found themselves on many corporate ballots.
Recent Example:
Mastercard faced a proposal on if and how they intend to reduce the risk associated with the processing of payments involving its cards for the sale and purchase of “firearm kits”.
Privacy in Proxy Voting
How Does Privacy Appear In Proxy Voting?
Collecting and sharing data is big business in today’s digital economy. Between the checkout on e-commerce sites, to the opening of apps throughout the day, various clicks can lead to uninvited surveillance. Businesses should be highly concerned with their data privacy policies because it is more important today than ever before.
Recent Example
Alphabet was recently asked by shareholders for a Report on Data Collection, Privacy, and Security which stresses the fundamental importance of online privacy. The proposal shows: Internet media companies collect, use, and store substantial amounts of user data and track user behavior across online platforms, creating significant financial, legal, regulatory, and reputational risks, should those data be improperly collected, misused, or accessed by unauthorized parties.
