Campus & Community

Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility releases annual report

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The 2017 Annual Report of the Corporation Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (CCSR), a subcommittee of the President and Fellows, is now available on the Shareholder Responsibility Committees’ website.

The report provides a detailed description of the CCSR’s actions on shareholder proposals regarding issues of social responsibility that came to vote during the 2017 spring proxy voting season (the period between March and June when most publicly traded corporations hold annual meetings). This year, the committees considered 44 proposals dealing with issues of social responsibility that were addressed to corporations whose securities were owned directly by Harvard. Issues raised through the proxy process this year included corporate political contributions and lobbying; executive compensation; labor standards; health care product safety; human rights; equal employment; defense and security issues; and corporate environmental reporting and practices on issues including greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy targets, and pesticides.

New topics addressed in 2017 included indigenous people’s rights in the context of project financing and the use of criminal background checks in hiring.

The CCSR receives advice from the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, a 12-member committee made up of Harvard faculty, students, and alumni.