The power of shareholders

Looks like shareholders are making a difference.

According to a recent press release from Ceres (a coalition of investment funds and public interest organizations that works with companies on environmental and social responsibility), in the past two years, several electric power companies in the US have bowed to shareholder requests of publishing climate risk reports. Most recently, four utility companies in the mid-west have agreed to do the same.

The press release also reports that: "The companies are among more than two-dozen U.S. businesses - including seven electric power companies, four oil and gas companies, six real estate firms, four big-box retailers, two insurance companies, two banks and one auto company - with whom investors filed global warming shareholder resolutions as part of the 2006 proxy season."

Perhaps this increasing trend can work its way into an across the board standard...