By Tom Levitt, AGM Activist
There’s always an air of anticipation at a corporate AGM: will my question be taken seriously? How long must I wait before my moment in the spotlight? What clever way of not quite saying “no” will they come up with?
At the Schroders 2017 AGM I needn’t have worried. The previous month they had ranked top of ShareAction’s flagship Asset Manager Survey for responsible investment so we were already among friends; and with barely 40 people present we were done in an hour.
So I was confident when I stood up to ask “Will you join other companies in the RE100 initiative to commit to 100 per cent renewable electricity in your own operations within a reasonable time scale, to be set by you?” The answer came: “Yes.”
Actually, the official answer, given by the Chairman, was: “We use 60 per cent renewable now, we’ll achieve 75 per cent in 2020 and 100 per cent in 2025”. Maybe the question I should have been asking myself before the AGM was “What clever way of saying ‘yes’ will they come up with?”But when I asked CEO Peter Harrison later, “Does that mean you’ll be joining the RE100?” his reply was much more succinct: “Yes”.
I was confident when I stood up to ask “Will you join other companies in the RE100 initiative to commit to 100 per cent renewable electricity in your own operations within a reasonable time scale, to be set by you?” The answer came: “Yes.”
Something for me and Anne-Marie Williams, ShareAction’s Investor Engagement Manager, to celebrate! Her question (just before mine, in her own right) concerned the lengths Schroders would go to in persuading their investee companies to work to keep global temperature rises at two degrees . Her reply from CEO Peter Harrison was very positive, making me even more optimistic about mine to follow. Keeping to the two degree limit as set by the Paris Agreement requires a rapid drop of 60 per cent in fossil fuel use, he agreed. Experts today say that the figure is closer to 80 per cent, but he’s headed in the right direction.
Talking to Harrison after the meeting, he clearly ‘got it’, acknowledging the responsibility of investors in changing investee policy on climate change. “The reason we have a climate change problem is because so many people have taken so many short-term decisions over so long,” he said, absolutely hitting the nail on the head. I’ve since had his permission to use that quote in my next book, The Company Citizen, to be published towards the end of the year!
Peter then graciously accepted Anne-Marie’s offer to put Schroders in touch with RE100 to get them working together on a timetable of action for 2025.
Why had it taken this responsible business until now to commit? It could be that as a global company, their operations in some countries might be in offices wheredecisions on energy supplies are out of their hands, or where zero carbon energy may not be readily available. That said, they’re on course to meet their 2020 target and have 7 years to make it 100 per cent by 2025.
I somehow think they’ll do it… result!
Thanks Tom! Click here to learn more about the RE100 initiatve or get in touch here.