Washington DC cityscape gettyThe House Committee on Financial Services’ April 29th hearing titled “Exposing the Proxy Advisory Cartel: How ISS & Glass Lewis Influence Markets” examined “the role and influence of proxy advisory firms…in shaping corporate governance and shareholder voting outcomes.”It’s about time.Proxy advisory firms exist because the SEC requires institutional investors to vote on all matters put forth in proxy statements, or the measures voted on during shareholder meetings. For most institutional investors keeping up with all the issues raised during shareholder meetings is overwhelming, so they turn to proxy advisory firms for help. Proxy advisory firms help institutional investors manage this herculean task. They do the leg work and advise institutional investors on how to vote on the thousands of shareholder resolutions that arise every year.Two proxy advisory firms – ISS and Glass Lewis – control 97% of the market. Given the sheer volume and importance of proxy statements every year, these two firms have acquired tremendous influence over corporate governance.Unfortunately, inefficiencies plague the proxy advisory market. As the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issue exemplifies, these inefficiencies weaken corporate governance to the detriment of effective management.While the pressure to implement ESG programs has lessened as of late, numerous ESG programs continue to be raised via shareholder proposals that include requirements to report on companies’ greenhouse gas emissions

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!We are huge electric vehicle fans and have written many, many, many articles about why we love them in our series, Decarbonize Your Life. But cars, even electric ones, are harmful to people and communities. The psychologist Carl Jung said everything has a “shadow” or dark side, and in this article we explore the big-time shadow of the ubiquitous automobile to tee up upcoming articles on mass transit, trains, and active transportation. Image courtesy of Dall-E. This shadow is also known as car harm, a term that characterizes the immense toll that cars have on people and our planet