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State Street Global Advisors posted updated guidance documents for companies in addition to those we reported on in the April 5 Society Alert. All companies with State Street in their stock should familiarize themselves with these expectations and understand the proxy voting implications.

• Climate-Related Disclosure—State Street made significant modifications to the text regarding its disclosure expectations and its approach to voting on climate-related shareholder proposals compared to its 2022 expectations document (changes redlined here), which we reported on here, resulting in much less prescriptive and more principles-based guidance and a streamlined “For,” “Abstain,” and “Against” voting framework.
• Corporate Participation in the Political Process—No substantive changes were made to the political activities guidance from the 2022 publication, which we reported on here (redline here).
• Diversity Disclosures and Practices—The updated diversity guidance, while in many respects less prescriptive and more principles-based than the 2022 guidance (which we reported on here), includes new disclosure expectations on pay equity and civil rights risks. State Street’s more streamlined approach to voting on shareholder proposals is duplicative of the climate piece (presumably inadvertently). Changes from 2022 are redlined here.
• Environmental Management Disclosure – Addressing Deforestation Risk in Supply Chains—The very few substantive modifications State Street made to its 2022 deforestation disclosure guidance (reported on here) are noteworthy. See the added materiality qualifier and other changes on page 5 of this redline.
• Human Rights Disclosures & Practices—The updated guidance on human rights disclosures and practices reflects a more streamlined, principles-based “For,” “Abstain,” and “Against” shareholder proposal voting framework than the 2022 guidance, which we reported on here (redline here).

Access additional State Street resources on our Institutional Investors page »State Street.

                               This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!