Simon Property Group - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Simon Property Group is Medium Risk.

Simon Property Group is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. The company occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	Medium Risk
Funding	Medium Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Simon Property Group integrates ESG into its business practices. From its 2022 Sustainability Report: “Our Director of Sustainability leads the ESG Executive Committee, which
includes C-suite executives from core functions of the Company, including the General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, President of Development, Executive Vice President of Simon Management, and Senior Vice President of Human Resources. The ESG Executive Committee supervises our sustainability performance, including monitoring climate-related issues, and provides periodic reports directly to the CEO and Board of Directors” (1). However, the company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (2).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Simon Property Group does not discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Simon Property Group appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruitment and hiring. From its Diversity and Inclusion Policy: “A formal internal and external recruitment, hiring, and retention strategy to effectively generate qualified, diverse candidates for our recruitment pipeline targeted at placing and hiring minority and underrepresented talent at our corporate offices and in the field” (1). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (2).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Simon Property Group’s subsidiary JCPenney signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge, which includes a commitment to promote DEI through bias education training in the workplace and promotes its Pride Shop (1)(2). The company celebrates Pride Month by promoting brands Pride collections to shop (3). Otherwise, the company has not supported ideological causes or policies (4).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Simon Property Group subsidiary JCPenney donated $400,000 to various ideological brands including The Point Foundation, an LGBTQ organization and made financial contributions to The Trevor Project (1)(2). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of Simon Property Group using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (3).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Simon Property Group does not operate a PAC and has not reported on its lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).