If you own mutual funds or participate in a pension fund, chances are you’ve got a piece of ExxonMobil – whether you want it or not. News from the oil giant’s recent annual meeting isn’t good, but we’ve got strategies you can use to send Exxon a message - as a shareholder and a consumer.
Here’s the situation. This week, shareholders of ExxonMobil, second largest firm in the world, with $372 billion in revenue last year (topped only by Wal-Mart), ceremoniously rejected proposals to become more HIP. Several measures falling short of shareholder support would have created the mandate to up ExxonMobil’s HIP factors (Health, Wealth, Earth, Equality, Trust), such as:
- Increasing renewable energy research (27% support by shareholders)
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions more aggressively (31% support)
- Splitting the CEO from the Chair role so it can be more independent of management and responsive to overall shareholder concerns (39.5% support)
- Supporting non-discrimination by sexual orientation and gender
identity (39.6% support) (ExxonMobil is the only major oil company to
avoid this policy)
This news is no surprise. In a HIP analysis of Big Oil companiesin the February 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine, ExxonMobil ranked second to last among US-based energy companies (only Valero was worse). Contributing to this low score was extensive lobbying (including opposing the science of climate change) and the worst greenhouse gas emissions performance by volume and ratio of any top-ten energy company.
So how HIP is ExxonMobil? Not very. The HIP management practices score rated a 10 of 25, and its impact score, incorporating Health, Wealth, Earth, Equality and Trust, a 39 of 100.
