The Center for Active Stewardship (CAS) is a non-profit research organization housed at the Jain Family Institute. CAS's goal is to leverage the asset management industry to accelerate the attainment of ESG goals, with an emphasis on environmental stewardship.
Each year, shareholders (including financial institutions) vote at the shareholder meetings of publicly traded companies such as Amazon and Nike, guiding the company’s course on select issues presented for a shareholder vote. Voting power is proportional to the number of shares a voter controls (although some shares carry more/less voting power).
When individuals invest in a mutual fund, an exchange-traded fund, a 401k, or most vehicles where shares are held by an intermediary, the intermediary financial institution may cast votes on the individuals' behalves.
CAS focuses on institutional proxy voting because it is a powerful lever for social and environmental change: each year, asset managers decide how tens of trillions of dollars of (their clients') shares should vote on issues ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to human rights, child labor, plastic pollution, artificial intelligence, and more.
Unfortunately—as you can see from our proxy voting impact scores—asset managers are generally not voting in favor of long-term global health and prosperity.
By providing open access to this data, we aim to increase accountability, enable research, and drive meaningful change.