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As You Sow Misleads Readers about Anti-DEI Proposals

July 31, 2026

Earlier this summer, as the 2025-2026 proxy season came to a close, leading progressive shareholder group As You Sow intentionally misled readers about the success of anti-DEI proposals. As You Sow suggested that voting results on anti-DEI shareholder proposals at 43 companies this season, including Disney, Costco, Visa, and Apple, proved that 99% of investors are opposed to anti-DEI measures. As You Sow claimed that the universal failure of these proposals sends an “unmistakable message” to corporate boards that DEI is a “financial asset” that directors need to prioritize for the needs of the company, labelling anti-DEI efforts as a “political threat.” A 0-43 record for anti-DEI proposals does appear striking at first. However, no ESG proposals won majority support in the 2025-2026 proxy season, which includes pro-DEI proposals at 0-10 with an average support around 13%. According to Broadridge’s 2025 ProxyPulse report, voting by retail investors “declined to 28% of their shares owned in 2025,” which is the lowest level of participation in 9 years. Low retail investor participation is the historical norm, as proxy votes are disproportionately cast by large institutions on their behalf, not by individual investors. As You Sow knows this. Furthermore, for As You Sow to suggest that “[d]iversity is not a liability to be managed, it is a dividend to be captured” when companies like IBM and Nike have recently faced intense scrutiny for their DEI practices is absurd. To learn more about the Myth of Shareholder Democracy, consider reading Stefan Padfield’s piece titled: Proxy Voting and the Myth About Shareholder Democracy.

The Course of ESG Investing

July 8, 2026

As ESG-related practices have come under increasing scrutiny in the United States and abroad, newly released data paints a clearer picture of the current state of ESG investing. Two realities stand out: Perhaps the clearest example of the ESG exodus lies in the investor movement away from ESG mutual funds. These funds have bled $65.7 billion since 2022, roughly 20% of their average assets. Additionally, new fund launches have collapsed from 116 in 2021 to just nine last year, and BlackRock has slashed its support for ESG shareholder proposals from 40% in 2021 to less than 2% (7/358) in 2025. Even the 2026 proxy season backs this up: no ESG proposal won majority support. But this does not mean ESG will disappear. Many of its most committed proponents are doubling down, pursuing ESG through less visible channels, or lying low until a more favorable political and regulatory environment emerges. For example, CalPERS has all but dropped the word “ESG,” now calling it “sustainability integration,” while still on track to nearly double its climate-related holdings to $100 billion by 2030. BlackRock’s Larry Fink stopped using the term too, calling it “weaponized.” The rhetoric has cooled, but the strategy has not. Investors have …

ESG Rating Inconsistencies and Their Ideological Ends

July 7, 2026

Allen Mendenhall’s recent piece on MSCI ranking SpaceX in the same ESG tier as Russia asks a fair question: how does a rocket company advancing American innovation get scored the same as a state waging war? Unbeknownst to many, inconsistencies are common when it comes to ESG portfolios and ratings. In 2022, S&P dropped Tesla from its S&P 500 ESG Index while ExxonMobil landed in the top ten. The EV maker scored worse on an “Environmental, Social, Governance” rating than a major oil company. In fact, according to MIT Sloan’s Aggregate Confusion Project, ESG ratings from major agencies correlate at only about 0.61. Compare that to credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P, which agree 99% of the time. Companies often receive vastly different ESG rating scores from ratings providers, even ones that share a pro-ESG bias. These are the kinds of inconsistencies that led Elon Musk, CEO of the second-largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, to declare that ESG is a scam. Mendenhall concludes himself: the SpaceX rating shows ESG functioning less as “socially conscious investing” and more as “a mechanism for advancing ideological ends.”

Is Corporate America Hostile Toward Christians?

July 7, 2026

In this episode of the Christian Business Leader podcast, Doug Napier, Executive Chairman and CEO of 1792 Exchange, joined host Darren Shearer to discuss the mission of helping businesses get back to business. The conversation explores how corporations can move away from activist pressures and refocus on their primary business objectives. Key Topics Discussed: Napier emphasizes that companies are often pushed into these agendas by external activists and that by providing a clear, risk-mitigated roadmap, the 1792 Exchange is helping them reclaim their focus on business excellence.

Mayer Brown Report Obscures Declining Support for ESG

June 26, 2026

Earlier this month, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance published an article by authors from Mayer Brown LLP analyzing ESG and anti-ESG shareholder proposals in the 2026 proxy season. The article frames anti-ESG proposals as merely “critical of” or “question[ing] the value of” ESG policies, rather than explaining the serious legal, financial, and reputational risks raised by these proposals. To be sure, anti-ESG advocates face a steep climb in securing majority support. According to the article, anti-ESG proposals received an average of just 1.7% support in the 2026 proxy season, and no anti-ESG shareholder proposal has ever passed. But focusing only on that figure obscures an important story in the data, namely, the declining support for ESG. For the first time in many years, no ESG-related shareholder proposal received majority support during the 2025–2026 proxy season. This continues a broader trend of waning investor enthusiasm for ESG, also reflected in continued outflows from ESG-related funds. At the same time, anti-ESG proposals continue to increase in number, signaling that shareholder concerns over ESG-related risks are not going away. The 1792 Exchange is proud to equip shareholders with data on corporate behavior they can use to encourage companies to get back to business. Rather than focusing …

Corporate Pride Pullbacks Meet GLAAD Polls: ESG/DEI Studies Deserve Skepticism Amid Replication Crisis

June 12, 2026

As institutional support for ESG and DEI initiatives continues to wane, evidenced by major corporations scaling back or withdrawing sponsorship of Pride events and merchandise, advocacy groups are responding with new polls and studies claiming broad public backing. Multiple reports from 2025–2026 document sharp declines in corporate funding for Pride celebrations, with cities like San Francisco facing $200,000+ shortfalls, New York City down ~20% ($750k), and numerous organizers citing pullbacks from sponsors like Mastercard, Pepsi, Anheuser-Busch, and others due to economic pressures and political risks. In contrast, GLAAD’s 2026 Pride Poll asserts a “supermajority” of Americans support brands participating in Pride, with findings like 68% agreeing companies should show support for the LGBTQ+ community if they choose and 62% comfortable with employee participation in parades. We can expect more such studies touting widespread ESG/DEI support in the coming months, but they should be viewed with skepticism amid the broader replication crisis in social science research. Stephen Soukup highlights how much of the academic foundation for ESG rests on shaky ground. A highly influential 2014 paper by Eccles, Ioannou, and Serafeim, which was widely cited to argue that “high sustainability” companies outperform others and used by policymakers and investors, subsequently failed to replicate. Its causal claims collapsed after scrutiny revealed methodological issues, including a “typo” that inflated significance. This fits a larger …