Shareholders name firms they will target over deforestation

Major investors will put pressure on 40 listed companies to step up their practices and policy engagement around forests and land use

Some of the world’s biggest companies are to be targeted by shareholders worried about deforestation and land degradation. 

A group of investors, collaborating under a new initiative called Spring, have selected 40 listed companies for engagement on the issue. 

The firms include Volvo, Bunge, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Bayer, Mafrig, Itau Unibanco, Clariant and Neste. The full list of names is in the table at the bottom of this article.

Businesses involved in key commodities, such as palm oil, cattle, soy, pulp and paper, timber, rubber, coffee, cocoa, nickel, gold, bauxite and coal were identified as priorities. 

Spring is being convened by the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment. The list of investors directly involved in the engagement has yet to be finalised, but some of Europe’s biggest asset owners and managers are among the 129 entities to have already come out in support of the initiative, which is expected to mirror Climate Action 100+.  

They want the companies to publicly commit to deal with biodiversity loss, set science-based targets, establish board oversight of the issue, and report in line with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. 

They want to see sustainable practices in line with the UN’s Land Degradation Neutrality Principles, with a focus on managing impacts within supply chains. 

Political engagement and lobbying will also be a focus of the efforts.

The investors insisted that companies were not chosen because of “any form of irresponsible conduct”. Instead, the 40 were selected because of their geographical exposure to deforestation and land degradation – with an emphasis on South America and Indonesia – and their ability to influence key policy topics, such as corruption, laws for forestry and commodities, and due diligence. 

Investors also assessed the likelihood they could realistically drive change at the firms. 

The list of companies will be expanded further later this year.