Since the turn of the century, investor activists have been pushing public companies toward more disclosure about climate change and similar issues. Only recently have companies really started listening to—and granting—their demands.
Those activist victories were discussed in detail recently at the annual conference of CERES, a coalition of investors lobbying for environmental causes. Bennett Freeman, head of social research and policy at the Calvert Group, said the investment firm had filed resolutions on climate change disclosure at 10 companies this proxy season; six of them—Big Lots, Lowes, Kirby, Ryder, Continental Airlines, and Harley-Davidson—subsequently agreed to produce climate change reports rather than face a proxy fight.
