Honeywell International | Report on environmental health impacts and management at Honeywell International

Status
13.04% votes in favour
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Proposal number
6
Resolution details
Company ticker
HON
Lead filer
Franciscan Sisters of Allegany
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Environment
ESG sub-theme
  • Public health
  • Waste and pollution
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Industrials
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request Honeywell International Inc. issue a report on environmental justice, updated annually, describing its efforts, above and beyond legal and regulatory matters, to identify and reduce heightened environmental and health impacts from its operations on communities of color and low-income communities. The report should be prepared at a reasonable cost and omit confidential or legally privileged information, including litigation strategy, and should be published on Honeywell’s website. Such a report should consider, at a minimum:
• Past, present, and future disparate environmental and health impacts from its operations;
• How responsibilities are allocated within the company regarding governance and management of environmental justice issues;
• Quantitative and qualitative metrics on how environmental justice impacts inform business decisions; and
• Whether and how Honeywell intends to improve its policies and practices in the future.
Whereas clause
Environmental racism is a systemic risk that exacerbates the climate crisis and racial inequities.1 Failure to adequately assess and mitigate impacts on communities often results in litigation, project delays, and significant fines. For instance, Honeywell has reportedly incurred over $276 million in fines since 2000.2 The company is also ranked in the top 10 companies responsible for water pollution globally, according to a 2021 report.3 Recent controversies include:
• A New Jersey lawsuit for allegedly knowingly polluting the environment with PCBs, a probable human carcinogen.4 The community surrounding the Superfund site is qualified as an “overburdened community” under the New Jersey Environmental Justice Law5 ;
• $2 million in cleanup costs in 2022 related to lead- and arsenic-contaminated soil in South Bend, Indiana. Residents allege Honeywell has contributed to environmental racism that has “destroyed the quality of life for many, many families generationally”;6
• Denial of a 2022 air permit renewal for a chemical facility which insufficiently responded to community concerns, whereas 81% of fenceline residents are people of color, and 64% are low-income7 ;
• $65 million settlement against Honeywell and peers in 2022 for contaminating New York’s water supply with PFOA, a long-lasting chemical associated with developmental and reproductive issues, cancer, and immunological effects8 ; and
• A lawsuit in Georgia alleging insufficient cleanup for PCB contamination9 affecting a majorityBlack community that houses multiple hazardous sites.10
Fenceline communities have criticized Honeywell for lack of effective community consultation surrounding pollution incidents, and for insufficient cleanup.11 A legacy Honeywell pollution coke smoke stack in Tonawanda, NY is linked to decades of health impacts, including elevated cancer risks, cardiopulmonary disease, and birth defects.12 Community members allege they have not been adequately consulted in cleanup efforts, and Honeywell is lobbying to reclassify the site, which may result in less comprehensive remediations. Honeywell faces increasing regulatory risk as the Biden administration has made unprecedented commitments around environmental justice,14 and numerous states where Honeywell operates have recently adopted environmental justice legislation

How other organisations have declared their voting intentions

Organisation nameDeclared voting intentionsRationale
VidaCaixaFor
Rothschild & co Asset ManagementFor

DISCLAIMER: By including a shareholder resolution or management proposal in this database, neither the PRI nor the sponsor of the resolution or proposal is seeking authority to act as proxy for any shareholder; shareholders should vote their proxies in accordance with their own policies and requirements.

Any voting recommendations set forth in the descriptions of the resolutions and management proposals included in this database are made by the sponsors of those resolutions and proposals, and do not represent the views of the PRI.

Information on the shareholder resolutions, management proposals and votes in this database have been obtained from sources that are believed to be reliable, but the PRI does not represent that it is accurate, complete, or up-to-date, including information relating to resolutions and management proposals, other signatories’ vote pre-declarations (including voting rationales), or the current status of a resolution or proposal. You should consult companies’ proxy statements for complete information on all matters to be voted on at a meeting.