Investor Engagement
organization
Just Share
description
Just Share conducts investor engagement focusing on financial institutions in South Africa, which may involve advocacy groups that have shares in a given company, pension funds, banks, investment managers, development finance institutions and others. The experiences with Full Disclosure (see tool #10) helped inform the founding of Just Share. To undertake their work, the social and environmental harms that communities are facing from large-scale investments are translated into the language of material risk in order to raise their profile with the boards of companies and investors so that investors understand the impacts of the companies they are invested in. Investors are engaged or encouraged to leverage their influence using tactics such as dialogue, company engagement, shareholder resolutions, speaking out at annual general meetings, reforming investment policies, divestment and other forms of public pressure that would motivate investors to change their investing practices with greater consideration for people and the planet. This also involves helping investors to understand why this is good for business, or in other words, material to their interests.
Doing this work involves identifying actual or potential harms that communities are living with, researching the company and investors involved, translating harms into material risk for investors (e.g. project tied up in court, regulations about to change/be enforced, massive liabilities attached, unlikely to operate for anticipated period of time), then convincing investors to listen in order to get them to learn about the problem and take action using one or more tactics. If they do not respond as desired, efforts may continue to bring greater pressure to bear on them.
To have impact, it can be helpful to collaborate with other groups that have shared goals, but use different advocacy tactics such as litigation or public demonstrations. Similarly, pressure can be built through collaborations with other groups involved in investor engagement or by getting investors to pool their efforts around a common issue, such as plastics or climate change.
impact
Illustration of Impact: In collaboration with other CSOs in South Africa, a combination of investor engagement, litigation, communications and community organizing has made it nearly impossible for proposed new coal-fired power stations to get financing from within South Africa. For its part, Just Share used a shareholder resolution to get a commitment from Standard Bank to publish a policy on lending to coal-fired power stations and coal mining operations. Concurrently, CER is litigating against government and industry over the proposed new coal power stations in coalition with other South African organizations.
Just Share is also encouraging other institutional managers to go beyond closed-door engagement with companies to use public tactics such as shareholder resolutions. This year, Just Share worked with a group of six investment managers to file a shareholder resolution with Sasol, a fossil fuels company and South Africa's second largest greenhouse gas emitter, calling for it to report on how it will mitigate emissions in line with the Paris agreement. Sasol refused to table the resolution. In collaboration with CER and community-based organizations in Mozambique and South Africa, Just Share also helped organize an action at the company's annual general meeting in November, to raise awareness of the company's social and environmental impacts.