Last week the Securities and Exchange Commission announced a subtle change in internal agency guidance that will have the consequence of more shareholder resolutions on ESG issues during the coming proxy season. The SEC rescinded three recent (Trump era) staff legal bulletins on shareholder proposals. ...

The U.S. Department of Labor is soliciting public comments on the proposed rule announced last month that would remove barriers to retirement plan fiduciaries’ ability to consider climate change and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors when they select investments and exercise shareholder rights. The ...

While there is much speculation about what the federal government will mandate the coming days about ESG disclosures, little attention has been paid to existing Securities and Exchange Commission required climate change disclosures and the sea change that has taken place in those disclosures. We ...

Brand name and reputation is the number one reason businesses engage in ESG efforts. With 78% of respondents in a survey published last Wednesday responding that brand name and reputation topped the list of matters affected by ESG, that 78% response was single highest number ...

Public companies in the U.S. find themselves at a dynamic time in the emergent environmental social governance (“ESG”) space. Socially conscious investors, employees, vendors, suppliers, consumers, not to mention stockholder environmental proxy proposals, and the like are driving companies to make ESG statements. This is ...

We are regularly asked if there is a checklist for ESG compliance and while there is not, with promised federal regulations not yet promulgated, there is good guidance available. A limited number of companies are Maryland based, but the State’s newly enacted corporate diversity statute ...

The “Social” components of ESG are among least measured factors in corporate sustainability despite being among the most impactful. Social starts with a company’s value system and a principled approach to doing business. Often cited as a checklist for Social factors are the first six ...