DuPont Faces Shareholder Demands to Report Plastic Pellet Spills
04 Mai 2021 - 5:46PM
Dow Jones News
By Dieter Holger and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa
Executives at DuPont de Nemours Inc. have lost a vote against
shareholders who are demanding that the chemical maker disclose
more on how its plastic ends up in the environment.
The Wilmington, Del.-based company said Monday that it was
reviewing a proposal to disclose its yearly spills of plastic
pellets that won majority support in a shareholder vote. Plastic
pellets are among the building blocks for a huge array of consumer
goods, ranging from smartphone cases and shampoo bottles to
toothpaste tubes and plastic bags. The bits of plastic can end up
in the ocean after spilling out of containers on their way to
manufacturers.
"We can confirm that the proposal received support from a
majority of the shares that were voted at the annual shareholder
meeting," said a spokesperson for DuPont, one of America's biggest
chemical companies.
DuPont's board had opposed the measure, saying it considered
"its adoption is unnecessary given the company's robust
sustainability policies and programs."
As You Sow, an advocacy group that filed the resolution, said
the vote won the backing of stockholders representing some 81% of
the company's shares. That is a record amount of support for an
environmental shareholder proposal opposed by the top brass at a
publicly traded corporation, according to the Sustainable
Investments Institute.
"This vote confirms a tidal wave of support by investors to
confront a deadly contributor to the global plastic pollution
crisis, as well as a historically high-vote result for a common
sense request that the company provide public reporting on spills
of pre-production plastic pellets," Conrad MacKerron, senior vice
president of As You Sow, said.
Shareholder resolutions aren't legally binding in the U.S., but
stockholders can vote out executives on a company's board. Under
President Biden, U.S. regulators are expected to greenlight more
shareholder resolutions on environmental issues than during the
Trump era.
In its statement against the proposal, DuPont said its resources
are better spent on the plastic programs it already has in place.
The company said it is already acting to avoid pellet spills, boost
plastic recycling and prevent plastic waste from entering the
environment.
DuPont isn't the only company investors want to report on
plastic pellets. Companies such as Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.
and Exxon Mobil Corp. have already reported on the waste.
A spokesperson for DuPont said Monday that the company's board
is considering "the appropriate next steps with respect to
reporting" on plastic pellets.
Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com;
@dieterholger
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 04, 2021 11:31 ET (15:31 GMT)
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