Wal-Mart adopted the most comprehensive set of social responsibility vendor standards in the retail industry. Shareholder resolutions brought them about. Through resolutions, investors have engineered a host of changes - from the environment to health to work place diversity. Ironically, shareholder resolutions on social issues almost never win the vote at company annual shareholder meetings. Change happens when companies negotiate with activists to avoid the resolution from coming to a full shareholder vote - an embarrassment for corporate executives.
Social investors get attention through shareholder resolutions.
Shareholder resolutions were an essential tool in ending Apartheid in South Africa. That political goal was achieved when south African elections were held in April of 1994. Despite the big victories, most shareholder resolutions are requests for information about work place diversity or environmental records. Resolutions for disclosure can lead to changes, too. After the SRI mutual fund Calvert and others brought to a vote a resolution asking R.R. Donnelly, the nation's largest printing firm, to release its equal opportunity employment records,Donnelly not only released the information but also started a program to improve diversity within company ranks.