S&P 500 Likely to Face Pressure to Report Nanotech Use and Investments
According to a Sustainable Investments Institute report, corporations globally invest some $9 billion annually in nanotechnology, yet less than one-tenth of S&P 500 companies make this information public to shareholders and other stakeholders and none has discussed purported health, environmental or safety risks in their Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-Ks. Shareholders are apparently beginning to engage companies in discussions about these risks; the first ever nano-related shareholder resolution was brought to a vote in 2014 (garnering 18.6 percent support before Dunkin’ Brands’ shareholders), and “[c]oncerned investors are promising to step up their efforts in 2015.”
The report outlines issues that investors should consider regarding companies that rely on, develop or use nanotechnology and nanomaterials; the current state of S&P 500 company disclosures; the history of the 30-year development of nanotechnology in the United States, including the most promising areas; currently identified areas of risk; EU and U.S. approaches to nanomaterial regulation; and shareholder proposal efforts begun as early as 2008 by groups such as the As You Sow Foundation, Calvert Investments and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. See The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, November 3, 2014.
Issue 545
