Prior to last month's announcement from the SEC, shareholders did not have the ability to nominate their own candidates to the board of directors of publicly traded companies. They were only able to cast their votes for those candidates nominated by company management.

The new decision from the SEC, which allows investors owning at least 3% of a company for at least three years to nominate candidates for the board of directors, opens the door for shareholders to have a greater say on who serves on the board of directors.

To illustrate the new power shareholders have been granted by the SEC, consider the example of Massey Energy Co, a company now well known for its West Virginia mine disaster. This past year, nine large public pension funds with combined assets of $500 billion asked their investors to vote against the reelection of a Massey board member. Under the new SEC ruling, these same pension funds could have gone a step further by nominating their own candidate to the board of directors and then encouraging their investors to cast votes in favor of their candidate.

Lisa Woll, CEO of the Social Investment Forum, an organization that works to advance investment practices that consider environmental, social and corporate governance criteria praised the SEC for their decision: "Universal proxy access is a fundamental shareholder right enjoyed in most developed nations around the world, so we are very happy to see the United States achieve parity on this critical market mechanism."

Woll added: " The SEC's final rule takes a thoughtful, balanced approach to ensure that proxy access is aligned with long-term shareholder interests and places a much-needed check on corporate management, while keeping those with short-term or takeover interests out of the equation."

Read more about the ruling and the its potential impact on companies here.

After a three-year engagement, Domini Social Investments has reached an important and far-reaching agreement with Nucor, the largest steel producer in the United States.
 
Nucor is the largest buyer of Brazilian pig iron, a key ingredient in the manufacture of steel. In a 2006 cover story, Bloomberg Markets magazine opened a window into the small camps that produce the charcoal used to make pig iron, exposing a world of slavery, inhuman working conditions and illegal deforestation.

The Brazilian pig-iron industry is not the worst offender, and many manufacturers do not use slaves. In addition, the problem suppliers are generally unknown to Nucor, lying several tiers down their supply chain.

For three years, Domini worked to keep this issue in front of Nucor management, pressing the company for a comprehensive and transparent system to address this problem. Domini recently announced that they have entered into a written agreement with Nucor in exchange for the withdrawal of their shareholder proposal.

Nucor will require its top-tier Brazilian pig-iron suppliers to either join the Citizens Charcoal Institute (ICC), or sign and adhere to the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labor. All ICC members agree to subject their supply chains to independent monitoring, and all National Pact signatories agree not to purchase from any supplier found by the government to use slaves, and to allow monitoring of that commitment.

Congratulations to Domini for demonstrating to all SRI investors that persistent shareholder advocacy can lead to influential changes in company policy!

http://murninghanpost.com/2010/08/12/pig-iron-and-modern-slavery/