Target 16.b: Non-discriminatory laws and policies
Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies for sustainable development
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Enacting and enforcing non-discriminatory laws is a legislative and judicial task, but corporate political voice bears on it. A total of 337 companies have signed the Human Rights Campaign business statement opposing anti-LGBTQ state legislation. Public Citizen documented 50 million dollars in corporate donations since 2015 to sponsors of voter-suppression bills. Shareholders have voted on the internal counterpart, with a racial equity audit proposal at Alphabet winning 64 percent of the independent vote in 2022. Owners voting to align political spending with non-discrimination commitments help at the margin.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Business Statement on Anti-LGBTQ+ State Legislation, Human Rights Campaign, 2021
- The Corporate Sponsors of Voter Suppression, Public Citizen, 2021-04-05
- Through a Series of Shareholder Proposals at Alphabet, Amazon and Meta Investors Underscore Digital and Human Rights Risks in Tech Sector, Investor Alliance for Human Rights, 2023-01-31
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Led the 2022 shareholder proposal asking Alphabet to commission an independent assessment of the company's impacts on racial equity.
Supported and publicised the coalition of thirteen civil society organizations backing the Alphabet racial equity audit proposal.
Filed a 2022 proposal at The Travelers Companies asking for a third party racial justice audit of the company's policies, practices, products and services.
The Travelers Companies, Inc. Racial Justice Audit (2022), Trillium Asset Management, 2022
2 campaigns on record
Commission a third party audit that assesses and produces recommendations for improving the racial impacts of the company's policies, practices, products and services, with stakeholder input and public reporting of the findings.
Result: 47 percent in favour
The Travelers Companies, Inc. Racial Justice Audit (2022), Trillium Asset Management, 2022
Commission an independent assessment of the company's impacts on racial equity.
Result: 64.3 percent of independent shareholders in favour; 22.4 percent of the overall weighted vote because insiders hold ten votes per share
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.