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Resolution: Corporate Environmental Accountability to Communities
2006 Shareholder Resolution approved by the Advisory Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility (ACCSR)
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Resolution:
Corporate Environmental Accountability to Communities
VERY PRELIMINARY DRAFT – TO BE MODIFIED FOR EACH COMPANY [494
words]
Resolved, That the shareholders request the Board of
Directors to report to shareholders, at reasonable cost and
omitting proprietary information, on how the corporation ensures
that it is accountable for its environmental impacts in all of
the communities where it operates. The report should contain the
following information:
1. how the corporation makes available reports regarding its
emissions and environmental impacts on land, water, and
soil—both within its permits and emergency emissions—to members
of the communities where it operates;
2. how the corporation integrates community environmental
accountability into its current code of conduct and ongoing
business practices; and
3. the extent to which the corporation’s activities have
negative health effects on individuals living in
economically-poor communities.
Supporting statement
We believe that corporations have an moral responsibility to be
accountable for their environmental impacts—not just effects on
the entire ecosystem, but also direct effects on the communities
that host their facilities. No corporation can operate without
the resources that local communities provide, but it is often
these communities that bear the brunt of corporate activities.
Communities are often the forgotten stakeholders in terms of
corporate activities and impact. Many corporations, for example,
have improved their social performance with regard to employees.
We believe that corporations can and should do better with
regard to treating local-community stakeholders more fairly.
There is increasing interest in better measuring and
understanding corporate effects on local communities, including
how corporations can use reporting to hold themselves
accountable to local communities. Corporations are already
required to collect environmental data, like the federal
government’s Toxic Release Inventory. But this data is not
always available to communities in a timely,
easy-to-understand format. Groups like CERES (Coalition for
Environmentally Responsible Economies) are developing
facility-level reporting regimes that we believe represent an
evolution in terms of how corporations are responsible and
responsive to community stakeholders. We also believe that
integration of community accountability into corporate
practices—including codes of conduct—is consistent with good
environmental management.
There is also more and more attention being given to the
adequacy of environmental impacts on corporate financial
statement, in large part driven by the demands of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. We think that the kind of report
requested in this resolution can not only help corporations
better respond to the demands of Sarbanes-Oxley, but also reduce
the likelihood that current corporate behavior will have
negative financial consequences in the future that will have to
be reported to shareholders. Simply put, good community
relations—especially with regard to the environment—make
financial sense.
Finally, the proponents of this resolution are particularly
concerned about the effects of corporate activities on poor
communities and communities of color. The report requested in
this resolution would do much to assure shareholders and other
stakeholders that the corporation takes seriously its ethical
responsibilities to all of the communities that host its
facilities.
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