BlackRock vows pressure on climate, board diversity

PRIORITIES SET

website on Monday, with climate risk and boardroom diversity on the list. Reuters received advance copies of the materials.

Michelle Edkins, set to oversee the outreach effort as head of a 30-person team, said BlackRock might want to hear from companies about how they are assessing the risk that climate change may pose to their operations. Edkins cited the example of how rising ocean levels could swamp a real estate company’s valuable beachfront property.

Some companies have shown leadership on the areas BlackRock considers priorities, Edkins said, while others need improvement. “There are firms where we think they’re probably not moving fast enough given the risks to the business,” Edkins said in a telephone interview on Sunday.

The action marked a stepup in BlackRock’s advocacy with boards and executives, and comes after the fund giant was criticized by environmental and labour activists for not backing proxy resolutions dealing with climate change and other topics more often at shareholder meetings.

Activists said BlackRock deserves credit for making climate change a central focus.

“They have made a turn in the road. They are looking at their proxies differently,” said Tim Smith, who leads shareholder engagement efforts at Walden Asset Management in Boston.

BlackRock also said it will look to understand how companies are working to increase boardroom diversity, such as adding more women.

“Diverse boards, including but not limited to diversity of expertise, experience, age, race and gender, make better decisions,” BlackRock said in the documents.

Some companies wrongly believe they already possess a diverse board of directors, Edkins said.

“A guy from Yale and a guy from Harvard does not count as diversity,” Edkins said.