Everything you need to know about shareholder resolutions 

Banner image: 1,313 hectares of clearing, including habitat for koalas at Cuttabri, NSW. Case linked to Commbank.

You may have heard your parents or your mates talking about the shares they own in a company, or perhaps you’re a shareholder yourself. Many of us purchase shares in a company, hoping to get a little more money coming in. But there’s more power in being a shareholder than you might realise.  

Shareholder resolutions are a powerful tool that we use at ACF to push companies to do better when it comes to nature.  

Find out everything you need to know about shareholder resolutions and the power you can wield, right here. 

What is a shareholder resolution?

If you hold shares in a company, you probably care about the decisions that the company makes. You may care whether they are trying to be more ethical or sustainable, or whether they are trying to reduce their climate impact. 

Shareholder resolutions give shareholders like you and I the chance to raise an issue and have it addressed by the company. 

To lodge a resolution, you need a group of at least 100 shareholders, holding a minimum of $500 each in shares. The issue is then brought to the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) as a formal item for discussion where the company must respond.  

Sometimes resolutions get withdrawn because the company agrees to do what is being asked of them – this is an ideal situation! 

While it’s great to see a high percentage of investors vote in support of the resolution, simply having the issue brought to light in the AGM is powerful. Not only does a shareholder resolution put the issue in front of the higher ups within the company, it also alerts investors who may not have considered the issue previously. 

These resolutions can be the spark needed for big change. 

What are some examples of shareholder resolutions?

Last year ACF, together with SIX, co-filed Australia’s first-ever nature-related shareholder resolutions for banks. Together, with a group of shareholders from NAB and ANZ, we called on both banks to disclose their exposure to deforestation and to adopt strong no-deforestation policies.   

ANZ shareholders delivered a massive vote in favour of the deforestation resolution at the bank’s AGM in Sydney. The resolution calling on the bank to disclose deforestation linked to its lending was supported by 22.7% of shares voted at ANZ’s AGM.  

At the NAB AGM, the resolution on disclosure of financed deforestation was supported by 13.98% of shares voted at NAB’s AGM. 

A second resolution, calling on the bank to set out a strategy to eliminate financed deforestation, was supported by 10.39% of NAB shares voted.

When have resolutions been successful overseas?

Shareholder resolutions are far more common overseas than in Australia and there have been many instances where they have resulted in big changes within companies. 

Here are some examples of successful shareholder resolutions: 

• In 2013, shareholders persuaded Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks to commit to certified sustainable palm oil.  

• In Japan, ACCR resolutions in 2022 and 2023 at J-POWER (Japan’s largest coal power operator) led to J-power committing to close five power generations units by FY30. 

• In the UK, BP reluctantly set Scope 3 goals after only 8.4% of investor votes supported a climate resolution in 2019.  

• In the US, Follow This resolutions got majority support at Phillips 66 (80%), Chevron (61%), and ConocoPhillips (58%) in 2021. This made these companies set goals for cutting emissions, including Scope 3 for Phillips 66. 

Why Commbank and why now?

This year we are filing a shareholder resolution with Australia’s biggest bank – Commbank.  

Commbank continues to be linked to deforestation, yet chooses to do nothing about the impacts. Our research found that from July 2023 to 2024 alone, Commbank financed the deforestation of 4,820 hectares of land. That’s the equivalent of an area of land almost five times the size of the Adelaide CBD. It's also just a small snapshot of the deforestation Commonbank is potentially financing. 

This year, our ACF investigations team has continued to pick up cases of deforestation linked to Commbank where federal approval was not obtained, despite likely meeting the threshold for impacts on threatened species habitat requiring referral under Australia’s environmental law. Look out for a new report in coming months exposing the cases picked up in our 2026 investigation.  

Other big banks and major corporations are making moves to address deforestation and as Australia’s biggest bank, Commbank must step up. 

Together, with SIX, almost 200 individual shareholders, Australian Ethical and Ethinvest, we are filing the resolution to request that Commbank disclose a pathway to become a deforestation-free bank.

Image: 1,225 hectares of clearing, including habitat for pink cockatoos at Bunyarra NSW. Case linked to Commbank.

What's next?

Banks have a powerful role to play in either helping or exacerbating Australia's extinction crisis. Banks can either facilitate nature destruction through their lending to certain activities and sectors, or help prevent it by setting strict conditions on lending to those that damage and destroy nature.    

We will keep putting pressure on these big banks until we see action.  

Commbank’s AGM will be held on 14 October 2026. 

In the meantime, you can email Commbank asking them to do their part to end Australia’s deforestation crisis.