By Anne-Marie Williams, member of the AGM Army
20 April 2015
On a lovely sunny afternoon in mid-April I attended my first AGM, a new recruit to the AGM Army. The AGM was for Carnival PLC, who own many well-known cruise lines such as P&O, Cunard, Princess Cruises and of course Carnival Cruises. As I approached the venue I felt slightly nervous: not knowing quite what to expect, though fully prepared, determined and armed with my question. I was there to ask Carnival what they were doing to address the business risks and social responsibilities of climate change. Luckily I had arranged to meet an AGM veteran who was able to give me a pep talk on arrival as well as quite a few tips, such as where to sit so that you can catch the Chairman’s eye and also that you should make sure you continue to stand by the microphone after you’ve asked your question in case you need to speak again.
The meeting opened in a fairly uneventful way with various introductions and then came the formal business of the meeting dealing with re-election of directors, re-appointment of auditors and other matters to be voted on. After the conclusion of the formal business there was a slick presentation about the company by the CEO, and following that the opportunity for asking questions. Several shareholders objected to the questions being scheduled after the conclusion of the formal business (apparently not usual practice) but they were over-ruled by the company.
Questions started slowly with some rather amusing ones, such as the one by a sea captain as to whether we could address one of the board members by his naval title. Also, several shareholders requested that the company provide a proper hot lunch, preferably by the caterers for the Seabourn cruise line of the company. After various attempts to get noticed I finally got to ask my question, standing at a microphone in the middle of the room. I made the point that I was pleased to see that the company had met its carbon emissions reduction target of 20% by 2015, a year ahead of schedule, but that I wondered whether more could be done to improve environmental policy and performance? My question was firstly whether the company would consider setting more ambitious group wide energy efficiency targets, and secondly whether the board would consider joining the Renewable Energy 100 initiative, which involves making a public commitment to switching their electricity use to 100% renewable energy by a specific date?
It was not nearly as nerve wracking as I had feared and my question got a positive response. The CEO was glad that I had acknowledged their environmental achievements so far. He said that they were very concerned about creating a cleaner environment and that they would have a look at my suggestion. Afterwards I was approached by several of the company’s executives and was able to have a helpful discussion, going into more detail about the feasibility of using renewable energy on a cruise ship the size of a small city! There are all sorts of challenges involved in incorporating renewable energy on board ships but the Chief Maritime Officer suggested putting me in contact with the relevant person at Carnival in order to take the dialogue further and things are already progressing. At the end I was able to have a long chat to the CEO who even agreed to a selfie! I definitely left feeling a sense of achievement that I had been listened to and had had the opportunity to engage with senior management on an issue that was important to me.
Thanks Anne-Marie! Click here to find out more about the AGM Army and sign up for one of ShareAction’s free training sessions today.