https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activist_shareholder
I am not excusing greed. I am just saying that if shareholders are focused on financial gain the corporate management is obliged to deliver. Not all shareholders are greedy. But overwhelmingly they are.
Would you be surprised to learn that there are shareholder groups that use their equity claims to pursue environmental, DEI or other goals that benefit society?
>Not all shareholders are greedy. But overwhelmingly they are.
Not even close. The vast majority of shareholders own stock through ETFs and pay no attention to the finances (or politics) of the companies they own.
The fiduciary rule is to prevent executives from running the company in their interest, as opposed to the interests of the silent shareholders who actually own the company.
Actually the difficulty with sustainable investments shows how difficult to rely on shareholder's values to goad corporates in the "right" direction: unless the risk is clear, present and impossible to disguise there is just enormous resistance to interfere with profitable opportunities.
Now in the context of digital information oligopolies good luck convincing shareholders that their big tech darlings are detrimental for the future of digital society.
[1] https://www.pionline.com/esg/blackrock-voted-against-record-...
Right, but many would sell their ETFs and buy others if they suddenly started to deliver below market returns.