An environmental advocacy group has successfully forced a proposal before Amazon shareholders seeking an examination of how the company uses flexible plastic packaging.
As You Sow said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected Amazon's request to exclude a proposal from the company's 2025 proxy materials that requires a study on the use of flexibles and the impact on pollution.
"Amazon is one of the world's largest e-commerce companies and plastic polluters," said Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow. "This decision will give investors the chance to vote on our proposal and demand real accountability and transparency."
Proxies are sent to shareholders by publicly traded companies ahead of annual meetings to address all sorts of matters, including the election of company officials. They can include proposals submitted by individual stock owners.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment April 9.
El Cerrito, Calif.-based As You Sow submitted a proposal for shareholder vote that would request that the company's board issue a report "describing how Amazon could address flexible plastic packaging ... to reduce its contribution to plastic pollution."
As You Sow's strategy is to use shareholder proposals to create change at publicly traded companies. The group said the Amazon proxy move is the third "circular economy-related proposal" the group. Other proxy questions involve a similar flexible plastics packaging proposal for PepsiCo Inc. and one asking Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to address tire wear particle pollution.