Environmental Shareholder Proposals Increasingly Moving Beyond Climate Change

4 minute read | Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance
October.13.2022

Shareholder proposals seeking supplemental disclosure reports about a range of environmental impact matters increased in the first half of 2022 across the Fortune 250.

While most of these proposals were related to climate change governance and disclosures – there were a growing number of proposals focused on other environmental topics, such as requests for detailed reports on single use plastic and packaging materials (53%), along with deforestation prevention (6%), pesticide use (6%), water management (6%), financing of fossil fuel supplies (6%), and similar environmental impact expenditures (23%).

Learn more about this trend and its potential impact on companies with a business and/or supply chain materially impacted by plastics, packaging materials, pesticides or similar items in this new article by Orrick partner J.T. Ho, published by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.

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Authors

J. T. Ho Partner, Corporate Governance, Capital Markets

San Francisco

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Practice:

Corporate Governance
Capital Markets
Compensation & Benefits
Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG)

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J. T. Ho Partner

San Francisco

J.T. counsels companies on Board and committee oversight, assessment and composition issues, developing effective shareholder engagement programs and governance-related disclosures, and helps companies to understand and consider the views of proxy advisors and institutional shareholders and other long-term stakeholders in their decision making. Recently, he has helped many companies successfully address ESG related shareholder proposals and activism campaigns and refine their disclosure controls and procedures and enterprise risk management programs to address cybersecurity and climate risk.

On the securities front, he focuses on advising clients in connection with securities offerings, proxy statements, periodic SEC reports, stock exchange listing obligations, stock repurchases and the sale and reporting of securities by insiders. He regularly counsels companies on difficult disclosure issues and provides training on disclosure best practices.

J.T. also advises on compensation committee matters and related disclosures as well as the design of cash and equity incentive plans, and has helped over a dozen companies remediate failed or low "say on pay" votes.

J.T. plays a leading role in Orrick’s ESG practice, helping companies identify and understand the risks and opportunities associated with ESG and incorporating ESG into a company’s overall business strategy and incentive plans. More recently, he has helped companies navigate the growing anti-ESG movement.

J.T. serves on the advisory board of The Corporate Counsel and hosts J.T.'s Fast Five, a monthly podcast on The Corporate Counsel where J.T. covers the five things public companies ought know each month. J.T. Ho also regularly presents on and contributes articles related to corporate governance, securities, executive compensation and ESG. He has presented at notable conferences sponsored by The Corporate Counsel, the Securities Regulation Institute, The Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Society for Corporate Governance, the ABA, the Practical Law Institute, Compensation Standards, Practical ESG and NASPP. He is recognized as a Next Generation Partner by Legal 500, as one of the Ones to Watch® Best Lawyers in America, and was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.