Engagement with issuers as an ESG strategy is not immune to being used as a cover-up for inaction and business as usual. Engagement-washing is becoming another established notion in ESG rhetoric. So it was extra salient this year that one of the ESG Clarity Awards should go to a group showcasing the best in high-quality engagement practices.
AllianceBernstein picked up this accolade after the judging panel was impressed with the “clear and evidenced positive outcomes of their engagement”.
Speaking to ESG Clarity in September, president and CEO Seth Bernstein, and chief responsibility officer Michelle Dunstan, say engagement success for the group has been down to the fine line an asset manager must walk of remaining consistently supportive of the company’s goals, while being bold enough to call out poor practice.
Not all investors display the courage to contradict management at a company’s AGM, for example, but Dunstan says this is not something that worries her team.
“We’ve always seen engagement as a two-way street in a productive relationship, we’re not particularly concerned about being shut out,” she says.
“If a company shuts you out because you are asking it to address difficult issues, that can be a red flag for whether that management is actually willing to deal with these difficult issues.”
Read the full interview in ESG Clarity’s September 2022 digital magazine.
