CPR, Externalities & Fiduciary Duty: Why Investors are Concerned about Corporate Impacts on People & Planet

A CPRT Expert Dialogue with Josh Zinner of ICCR and John Keenan of AFSCME

Investors are increasingly concerned about the impacts corporations have on people and the planet, and the risks these can create for businesses, investors, and beneficiaries. Institutional investors in particular worry about “externalities” that can undermine a firm’s financial performance or amplify systemic risks across all portfolios. Given these impacts, some investors view it as central to their fiduciary duty to engage more actively with portfolio companies, shaping both business operations and political influences to reduce externalities. Others argue that such strategies violate fiduciary duty, because they apply non-economic factors to investment decisions.

Please join us for our next interactive dialogue with Josh Zinner of ICCR and John Keenan of AFSCME where we will explore:

• Why investors are concerned about externalities and the environmental and social risks they create
• How corporate political influence impacts these risks, including effects on workers
• What scenarios we might see following the recent ERISA rule on fiduciary duty
• How emerging worker voice can help companies address these issues
• How CPR can be applied to help reduce environmental and social risks

Josh Zinner is the CEO of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of more than 300 global institutional investors currently representing more than $4 trillion in managed assets. John Keenan is Corporate Governance Analyst with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).  

The Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce (CPRT)’s Expert Dialogues are in-depth, recorded conversations with academic experts, stakeholder advocates and business practitioners to provide our members and other CPR champions with the expertise and context they need to develop principled, proactive CPR strategies.

We invite those interested in a constructive, non-partisan, principles-based discussion. To learn more, contact Elizabeth Doty at [email protected].

This dialogue is designed for leaders in government affairs, diversity, equity and inclusion, and sustainability, as well as academic experts and stakeholder advocates. We invite those interested in a constructive, non-partisan, principles-based discussion.