Your investment portfolio is invested in Positive Impact Funds that are doing good for the world and yet you still want to do more? Well look no further than AGM Activism – it could be just up your street and ShareAction, a UK registered charity, are the ones to help.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone was trying their best for the planet and its people? But so often companies don’t, either because they don’t know how, or they don’t care. Greed often speaks a lot louder than morals and values. If more people spoke up for what was important to them, then maybe together we could make companies take responsibility for their impact on people and our planet.
This is why ShareAction goes to company AGMs and trains up people, like you and I, to do the same. They provide the training so that we have the confidence and the right knowledge and questions, to go and make our voices heard and make change happen. This can also influence other investors and cause a ripple effect.
EQ Investors, who we use for their Positive Impact Portfolios, go to AGMs to make a difference too.
ShareAction provides training in late March / early April as AGM season is in April – June and you don’t have to go by yourself, go and support somebody else asking the questions by just being there, or take one of ShareAction with you when you give it a go yourself. ShareAction can advise you on the nice AGMs to go to, as many of them don’t have many attendees and so are pleased to have members of the public there. AGM activists are often the only ones asking questions and it is generally the only time that the top people at the company are all available together.
Examples of great AGM Activism in 2023
Herefordshire Wildlife Trust asked UK supermarkets about the role their suppliers played in causing devasting pollution to the River Wye, Friends of the Earth challenged Unilever on their palm oil sourcing, and End our Cladding Scandal asked Aviva about the safety status of their leased buildings.
ShareAction kept the pressure on global food giants Nestle by travelling to their AGM in Switzerland and arguing the case for the prioritisation of healthy food sales.
Dominic, social-worker and founder of the #FoodisCare campaign, used ShareAction to help deliver hard-hitting testimonies to the boards of Unilever and Tesco. He asked how they, as food retailers yielding enormous profits, are taking responsibility to ensure that those hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis can access nutritious foods.
ShareAction joined forces with representatives from trade union Unite, amplifying the voices of hotel workers by asking Whitbread to pay its staff a real Living Wage. ShareAction also worked alongside trade union the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) and co-ordinated questions on pay and poor working conditions at Deliveroo.
