Heidi Welsh

Background

About Heidi Welsh

The Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2) provides in-depth, impartial research on contentious corporate responsibility issues raised in shareholder resolutions. Each year we build out our research library (comprehensive annual topic briefings, annually as many as 300 company reports) on key ESG topics. We follow SEC developments closely.In 2023, we issued "The Black Hole of Corporate State Lobbying" about the dearth of state-level lobbying disclosure, given a nascent SEC rule that could require more reporting by companies.From 2020-23, we assessed the full political spending footprint of Fortune 250 companies, and how much money went to entities opposed to reproductive health rights, finding deeply partisan spending at the state level.In 2019, we researched the long upstream automotive supply chain for "Shifting Gears," a report by Investors Advocates for Social Justice released in June 2020.In November 2018,"State of Integrated & Sustainability Reporting 2018" for the IRRC Institute examined trends in S&P 500 reporting. In February 2018,"Spending Against Change" for the 50/50 Climate Project assessed corporate oversight of climate risk and political influence spending at 21 top energy and utility companies. It followed earlier reports on utilities and climate change and corporate spending on elections and lobbying. We've also analyzed S&P 500 corporate sustainability oversight, nanomaterials, & hydraulic fracturing in additional reports funded by the IRRC Institute. Previously I was at the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) and RiskMetrics (now MSCI). Highlights were:* Corporate monitoring for the MacBride fair employment principles in Northern Ireland (1990-2006).* Examining sustainability reporting by the world’s largest companies (2006).* Co-authoring CDP’s report on climate change & the S&P 500 (2007).* Serving on the GRI’s Electric Utility Sector Working Group (2008-09).* Serving on an Oxford University panel about affirmative action in Northern Ireland (2008-09).Specialties:*Corporate sustainability assessment.*Intimate knowledge of the U.S. shareholder resolution process.*Strong writing, editing, public policy analysis skills.