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BP's shareholders overwhelmingly supported a resolution on Thursday that would force the company to disclose some of its climate change-related risks. The shareholder vote was extraordinarily lopsided, with about 98% of shareholders approving the resolution, which had the backing of BP's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg. The embrace of the climate change resolution is being called a watershed event in the history of climate-related shareholder resolutions, which investors large and small have been pursuing since 1999 to try to encourage oil, coal and gas companies to inform shareholders of their climate change-related risks and shift their investments into renewable sources of energy.

Investors filed 110 shareholder resolutions this proxy season related to sustainability issues and climate change with 94 US companies, according to business nonprofit Ceres, which helped coordinate the shareholder filings.

To assess shareholder involvement, I poured through the social and environmentally related shareholder proposals of 2015 using two terrific resources: Ceres and the Manhattan Institute's Proxy Monitor 2015 Scorecard.

According to Green Biz, 14 environmental and social resolutions earned at least 40 percent shareholder support, with requests for sustainability reporting tha tincludes greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency targts gaining over 40%

This month, shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow released its 10th annual Proxy Preview report, detailing the record-breaking 433 social and environmental shareholder resolutions filed so far this proxy season, with political spending and climate change driving most of the activity.

Shareholder proposals are an effective tool for driving companies to tackle environmental and ethical issues, according to new research. "Investors can be a driver for social responsibility and -- at least when focused on material issues -- can improve both societal and financial outcomes at the same time," writes George Serafeim.

Utility FirstEnergy, one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the US, has responded to shareholder demands and agreed to reduce its carbon emissions, the New York Times reports. The company - the eighth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the US according to the Greenhouse 100 index - says it will study and report on what it can do to meet President Barack Obama's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

General Mills shareholders will vote this week on a resolution asking the company to assess its post-consumer waste strategies. The resolution was filed by nonprofit As You Sow.

Food and commodities giant ADM, which has reached over US$80 billion in revenues, says it will develop a no-deforestation policy in a move to source soy and palm oil more responsibly. The change occurred after a shareholder proposal, submitted by Green Century Capital Management and the New York State Common Retirement Fund, requested that ADM set quantitative goals for a reduction in supply chain impacts from deforestation....

 cracks are beginning to appear in the shareholder value edifice and are leading to a renewed examination of the factors that should shape investor decisions. Three factors are driving this re-assessment.

Critics of genetically modified crops protested at Monsanto Co's annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday, calling for the world's largest seed company to provide a report on contamination in non-GMO crops and to stop fighting mandatory labels on foods containing GMO ingredients.

Investors have filed 417 social and environmental shareholder resolutions so far this year at least 50 more than the same time in 2013 and 20 percent more than in February 2012, according to an analysis of proxies.

Chipotle is under pressure from shareholder activists who want the company to publish an annual report on its food sourcing, energy use, waste and labor standards. The proposal, due for a vote at Chipotle's shareholder meeting in May, is important given the brand's focus on green marketing, explains Adam Kanzer, managing director at Domini Social Investments. "They've really put their brand behind this message of sustainability and better farming techniques and cleaner agriculture," he says. "We want to understand: Is it true? How is it done? How do you manage it?"

Almost two-thirds of companies say water shortages could affect business operations over the next five years, according to the CDP Global Water Report. That's driving shareholders to insist that companies plan for dealing with water scarcity. "It doesn't take many shareholders, especially big ones, to ask a few questions ... about water to make a company to do something," says Stuart Orr, freshwater manager at WWF International

Shell is set to confront the risk that climate change may pose to its future, after backing a resolution from activist shareholders. The move came on the same day it announced $15bn (£10bn) in cost cutting due to plummeting oil prices and said it wanted to resume drilling for oil in the Arctic.

BP and Shell plan to encourage shareholders to back a resolution brought by investor activists, which urges the companies to strengthen their response to the escalating risk of climate change

The amount of trash produced by K-Cup pods sold for home and office coffee brewing by Dunkin' Donuts may not be worth the revenue, say some of the chain's shareholders. One investor has called on the board of directors to provide a report on the issue by October.

Smithfield's pledge followed a legal complaint by the Humane Society alleging that the pork supplier claimed to have higher animal welfare and environmental standards than it actually did.

A proposal to Mondelez International from As You Sow asking the snack food company to phase out unrecyclable packaging received 28.4 percent shareholder support representing $11.8 billion worth of shares at the food manufacturer's annual meeting.

Shareholder pressure to phase out Styrofoam has not kept McDonald's from using foam cups in several Chicago-area restaurants this summer, though the company would not say where else it may be using them. The chain said it continues "to work with our suppliers on sustainable packaging options that reduce our sourcing footprint and positively impact the communities we serve."