投资者对环境公司施加压力

投资者对环境公司施加压力

Investors are increasingly demanding companies outside of the oil and gas business to consider the environment in their decisions.

投资者越来越多地要求石油和天然气行业以外的公司在决策时考虑环境因素。

In a few weeks, Amazon investors will vote on a proposal to push the company to show how it is reducing its use of fossil fuels. In the American state of Kentucky, Yum Brands stockholders want to know what the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell is doing about deforestation.

几周后，亚马逊的投资者将投票通过一项提案，推动亚马逊展示其如何减少对化石燃料的使用。在美国的肯塔基州，百胜品牌的股东们想知道肯德基、必胜客和塔可贝尔的母公司正在关于森林砍伐问题做些什么。

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) studies corporate governance and responsible investing. The group found that outside of the energy and utility industries, investors only looked at 33% of such proposals five years ago. So far this year, that number nearly doubles to 60%.

机构股东服务(ISS)研究公司管理并负责任地进行投资，该集团发现，在能源和公用事业行业之外，五年前投资者只关注了33%的此类提案，今年到目前为止，这个数字几乎翻了一番，达到60%。

Kosmas Papadopoulos is the executive director of ISS Analytics. “Climate change will affect all industries,” he said. “And I think we’ll see more in other sectors.”

科斯马斯帕帕佐普洛斯是ISS分析公司的执行主任。“气候变化将影响所有行业，”他说，“我认为，在其他领域，我们会看到更多。”

Peter Reali is head of responsible investing at Nuveen, a global investment company. “You’re definitely seeing investors ask for it, but you’re also seeing companies wanting to talk a lot more about it, in particular on climate change issues,” he said. “We have meetings or phone calls with hundreds of companies annually, and boards are really interested in what investors think about this stuff.”

彼得·雷利是全球投资公司Nuveen负责投资的主管。“你肯定看到了投资者的要求，但你也看到一些公司想要更多地谈论该问题，特别是在气候变化问题上，“他说，“我们每年都会与数百家公司开会或打电话，董事会对投资者关于这件事的看法非常感兴趣。”

Most stockholder proposals pushing for environmental action fail to pass. Company managements usually suggest voting against them. Many say they are already paying increased attention to the environment.

大多数股东推动环境行动的提案未能通过，公司管理层总是建议投票反对他们，许多人说他们已经越来越关注环境了。

At Starbucks’ annual meeting in March, stockholders voted against a request for a progress report on recycling cups and reducing waste that ends up in the ocean.

在3月份的星巴克年会上，股东们投票反对一份关于回收杯子和减少最终在海洋中产生的垃圾的进度报告的请求。

Starbucks’ management said that it already has planned to eliminate plastic straws, among other environmental-friendly moves. The proposal lost by a five-to-four vote.

星巴克的管理层表示，它已经计划在其他环保举措中消除塑料吸管，这项提案以5比4而未通过。

Papadopoulos notes that getting support for such proposals is difficult “even for some of the issues where you may have seen consensus in the market.” He added, “anything above 30%, we generally consider as significant.”

帕帕佐普洛斯指出，要获得对这些提案的支持是很困难的，“即使是市场上你已经看到的达成共识的一些问题也是如此。”他补充说，“在超过30%的情况下，我们通常认为是重要的。”

But the biggest successes for investors may not take place at stockholder meetings at all. They may come, instead, during the private conversations between stockholders and companies.

但对于投资者来说，最大的成功可能根本不会发生在股东大会上。相反，它们可能出现在股东和公司之间的私人谈话中。

For example, the investing group Green Century Capital Management said it recently withdrew a proposal made to Royal Caribbean Cruises. The proposal concerned the cruise operator’s food waste management. After the withdrawal, Royal Caribbean still agreed to document annually how much food waste it has and what it is doing to reduce it.

例如，投资集团绿色世纪资本管理公司表示，它最近撤回了向皇家加勒比邮轮提出的一项提案，这项提案涉及邮轮经营者的食物浪费管理问题。提案撤销后，皇家加勒比地区仍同意每年记录其有多少食物浪费，及其为减少浪费所做的工作。

I'm John Russell.

约翰·罗素报道。

Words in This Story

investor – n. a person who uses money to earn more money : a person who uses their money to purchase stock in a company, to buy property, etc., in order to make future profit

sector – n. an area of an economy : a part of an economy that includes certain kinds of jobs

board – n. a group of people who manage or direct a company or organization

recycle – v. to make something new from (something that has been used before)

consensus – n. a general agreement about something : an idea or opinion that is shared by all the people in a group

significant – adj. very important