Linking Executive Compensation to Sustainability Performance

Sustainability issues are becoming increasingly common in the boardroom, particularly as the volume of shareholder proposals regarding environmental and social policies has grown in recent proxy seasons. One area receiving attention from directors is the link between sustainability performance and executive compensation. This Director Notes discusses corporate directors’ increasing interest in sustainability matters, progress toward a notion of performance assessment that incorporates nonfinancial elements, and companies’ efforts to explain how they link incentive awards to sustainability targets in response to shareholder proposals filed on this topic since 2009.