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DuPont loses diversity and plastic pollution votes by wide margins at shareholders meeting

Investors voted by 84% in favor of DuPont publishing data about the diversity of its employees

Plastic bottles and other garbage floats on the Tagaret River which flows into Uru Uru Lake, near Oruro, Bolivia on March 25, 2021. A large majority of DuPont's investors wants the chemical giant to say how much plastic it puts out each year. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Plastic bottles and other garbage floats on the Tagaret River which flows into Uru Uru Lake, near Oruro, Bolivia on March 25, 2021. A large majority of DuPont's investors wants the chemical giant to say how much plastic it puts out each year. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)Read moreJuan Karita / AP
    by Kevin Crowley, Bloomberg
    Published 

Large majorities of DuPont investors voted in favor of a proposal publishing data about the diversity of its employees and for another seeking more transparency on pollution, rebuffing the chemical giant’s management at its annual meeting.

About 81% of shareholders voted for a report that would disclose how much plastic the company releases into the environment each year and assess the effectiveness of DuPont’s pollution policies, according to a regulatory filing. DuPont’s management had urged investors to reject the proposal.

The level of support was the highest on record for an environmental resolution opposed by management, 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,” said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president at nonprofit shareholder advocate As You Sow, which filed the proposal.

Investors voted by an even greater number, about 84%, in favor of DuPont publishing data about the diversity of its employees through its EEO-1 form. Management also recommended that shareholders reject the proposal.

Company shares closed up 1.56%, to $79.50, in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.