The Sierra Club Georgia Chapter is no stranger to shareholder resolutions. Twenty years ago, as national Sierra Club staffers, Sam Collier hired Bruce Herbert to work on a shareholder resolution for DuPont during the campaign against the company’s proposed mine next to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Sam Collier and then-Chapter Chair Sam Booher both went to Wilmington, Delaware, to present the resolution, which helped defeat the mine. Since then, the Chapter has engaged in shareholder resolutions as an effective avenue for change.
Each year, Sierra Club activists attend the annual Southern Company Shareholder meeting. In 2017, we worked to engage investors around a shareholder proposal urging Southern Company to disclose in a report how it could be impacted by the International Energy Agency's 2 degree climate change scenario. The effort was highly successful: 46% of shareholders voted in favor of Southern company issuing the report, a 12% increase from the 2016 results
1. Watch the 2017 Southern Company Shareholders Meeting here >>
- 13:02 Sister Pat Daley, Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, presents 2-degree risk resolution
- 23:25 Mari Gutierrez, Sierra Club Executive Committee Member seconds the resolution
- 30:25 Tom Fanning reports preliminary results
- Watch Tom Fanning present the State of the Company report here.
- Watch the Q&A at the meeting here.
2. Listen to volunteers discuss the 2017 shareholder resolution on WABE's “A Closer Look”.
- Listen to Sierra Club volunteers Mari Guitierrez and Sam Collier report the 12% increase in shareholder support for our climate resolution, and the withdrawal of two other resolutions because the company agrees to report on climate asset risk and methane (interview starts at 18:45)
3. Read about the shareholder resolution in this Energy & Policy Institute blog
- You can also read this Utility Dive article here.
Get Involved!
We are always looking for volunteers who may want to speak, help us shape shareholder proposals, and plan for our attendance at Southern Company Shareholder meetings. The best way to get involved is to become a regular attendee at our Clean Energy For All Committee. This committee meets regularly in our Chapter Office on the first Monday of each month. Please visit our Clean Energy Committee page for more information.
If you are a Southern Company Shareholder and would like to allow volunteer activists to attend the meeting and/or speak using your proxy, please contact Sam Collier.