Target 8.4: Resource efficiency; decouple growth from degradation
Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead
Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
Why shareholder democracy is necessary
UNEP's Global Resources Outlook 2024 reports material extraction rose from 30 to 106 billion tonnes since 1970. It calls for circular business models, private finance channeled to sustainable resource use, and regulation to disincentivize resource-intensive options. The extractive, materials, packaging, consumer goods and retail companies that drive material flows are largely listed. Owners can push product design, recycled content and circular models directly, while governments must set the regulatory frame. Proxy Preview 2026 lists plastic pollution among the ongoing environmental concerns on which shareholder resolutions continue to be filed. Owners supply a necessary input, and governments must also act through regulation.
How this was scoredNecessary
Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes. Others must also act.
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
What civil society organizations are helping owners on this
Files shareholder proposals and negotiates agreements with consumer companies to disclose plastic footprints, set plastic reduction goals and correct recyclability claims, securing commitments from Costco, Starbucks, Sealed Air, Amcor and Campbell's.
Green Century's Top Ten Highlights from 2025, Green Century Capital Management, 2025-12
Filed sustainable packaging shareholder proposals over fifteen years and engaged Walmart, Procter & Gamble and Nestle Waters North America to endorse extended producer responsibility for packaging.
4 campaigns on record
Disclose the volume of plastic packaging the company uses and clarify which packaging is recyclable in practice rather than only designed to be recyclable.
Result: Campbell's committed to disclose its plastic packaging volume and to clarify which packaging is genuinely recyclable in practice.
Mmm! Mmm! Plastic? Campbell's to disclose plastic use, Green Century Capital Management, 2026-07
Disclose environmental and sustainability risk information using recognized standards, including the company's plastic footprint, refillable packaging investment and supply chain emission plans.
Result: 22.11 percent of shareholders voted in favor at the April 2026 annual meeting.
Provide accurate information on the recyclability of plastic packaging, improve packaging sustainability and share plans for reusable cups.
Result: Starbucks agreed to ensure accurate recyclability information for its plastic cups and to share reusable cup transition details by early 2026; Sealed Air and Amcor committed to improve packaging sustainability and correct recycling labels.
Green Century's Top Ten Highlights from 2025, Green Century Capital Management, 2025-12
Disclose the plastic footprint of Kirkland Signature products and set a plan to reduce plastic packaging.
Result: Costco agreed to disclose the plastic footprint of Kirkland brand products and unveiled a five-year action plan to reduce plastic packaging.
Related subjects on other maps
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.