Teneo reported these top takaways from the 2025 proxy season.
Support for environmental proposals from both proxy advisors and investors sharply declines.
- Average shareholder support for environmental proposals declined from 18% last season to 11% this season (and no proposal has garnered majority support), which the firm attributes to the lack of ISS support, overly prescriptive proposals, and improved corporate disclosure.
Social proposals see diminishing support in a politicized environment.
- Average shareholder support for social proposals declined from 18% last season to 14% this season, with political contributions proposals garnering the highest level of support, as we reported on here.
Governance proposals remain popular, but support is on the decline.
- While ISS support for governance proposals remained high at 56% compared to 54% last year, average shareholder support and the passage rate declined season-over-season from 35% to 33% and 18% to 15%, respectively.
Anti-ESG and anti-DEI shareholder proposals continue to receive single-digit support.
- With just one proposal garnering more than 3% support, average support declined to 1.4% this season from 1.9% last season.
Regulatory caution significantly impacts engagement.
- As previously reported, the new SEC 13G/D guidance temporarily paused and has since tempered shareholder engagement.
Additional stats include 96.7% support for directors (vs. 96.4% last season) and 90.2% support for say on pay (flat with 2024), with some signs of declining support that the firm correlates with the market volatility.