Sustainability separate agenda item of shareholders’ meeting
26 januari 2009
The first is to organise stakeholder consultation sessions to discuss specific items with various stakeholders. The objective would be to get better insights on what interested parties think of the company and to exchange ideas that can contribute to the company’s license to operate. These sessions would be comparable with the “one on one” meetings that listed companies very frequently have with shareholders and analysts.
The second thing is that sustainability should be included as a separate item (for discussion) on the agenda of the shareholders’ meeting. This is not a very common practice. In The Netherlands only ING has done this for several years now. Thus, the discussion on sustainability is not depending on “smart interventions” of certain shareholders in the discussion on the report of the managing board, or something like that. A separate agenda item will contribute to a structured and balanced exchange of ideas and discussion. A qualified chairman will be able to keep the discussion relevant and focussed. Then it will also become clear for all present that managing and questioning the societal impact of the company is a crucial element in the process of long term value creation. An open debate in the shareholders’ meeting will help to balance short term and long term interests of the company –and society.
An argument against a separate agenda item is obviously that sustainability is not a separate element of the business, but a part of the core processes. I agree with that. However, the need for a structured, relevant and balanced discussion outweighs this. I’m convinced that specific attention to the discussion on sustainability will help to make the company stronger.
Of course this discussion in the shareholders’ meeting is part of a continuous process (built on stakeholder consultation sessions). Maybe at some point a company and its stakeholders will conclude that a separate agenda item is not needed anymore. But until that moment, a specific allocation of time to sustainability in the shareholders’ meeting will truly benefit the company. Do you agree?
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