Jun. 04, 2021
Dear SEC Rule Comments, The Securities and Exchange Commission must require 100% transparency by corporate managers with their shareholders in all their statements. Shareholders legally own the corporation! The Board and the CEO are employees! Honesty is not only the best policy it must be legally binding! And all failures to do so must be accompanied with punishments directly on those responsible--not on their shareholders. I want to know which companies are serious about a just, green future. And which ones are frauds. The SEC has essentially one job: To keep corporations honest and make them follow the law! I want to know their real contribution to the climate crisis and environmental destruction. I don't want corporate stooges to be able to lie to me without substantial and painful consequences on the liars themselves--fines, bans, jail. Corporations also need to be honest about what they’re doing to stop climate change and how they are planning for a future affected by an accelerating climate crisis. Managers must be forced to disclose to shareholders if their company is making donations to politicians, political organizations, political action committees, political think tanks, etc. A company's CEO's, managers and Board Members must face real penalties if they say one thing about its climate commitments in public, but behind the scenes, they lobby to sabotage efforts to limit the climate crisis. This requirement of honesty must extend far beyond climate-related issues. Companies must be clear about other material issues. These include but should not be limited to their hiring practices, diversity, board composition. Add to that what countries they pay taxes in, how they treat their workforce, and what their human rights impacts are. Shareholders and the public have the right to be informed of these sorts of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors. And the SEC must do a much better job. It must stop being a corporate lap-dog. You must require clear, standardized, and trustworthy information on these topics from all companies. In other words, complete honesty must be the legal requirement between a corporation and its owners--its shareholders! Thank you for considering my comment. Sincerely, Bruce Hlodnicki