Beyond GMOs, the issues voted on usually were old subjects in new contexts.

As part of an ongoing decade-long debate, the committees voted on proposals to force corporations to adopt an environmental code of conduct, the Ceres principles. The ten points on the environment have been discussed by the committees since 1990, when the ACSR recommended abstention.

Treating the proposals on a company-by-company basis, this year the ACSR recommended the resolution for two companies, but opposed it in the case of five others. The CCSR abstained from or opposed the proposals.

Extending a 1989 decision to restrict investment in tobacco-related products, the ACSR considered measures that called on companies themselves to restrict their sales to tobacco producing companies. The ACSR voted 8-1-0 to compel H.B. Fuller to, in the words of the proposal, "adopt a policy not to sell its adhesives to any tobacco related company when they will be used in the production of cigarettes."

The CCSR voted in accordance with the ACSR recommendation.

The ACSR-CCSR Connection

According to statistics published in the report, the ACSR and the CCSR were in agreement on 55 percent of the proposals. The majority of the remaining situations involved one committee issuing judgement while the other abstained.

Tolchin said that, in general, he thinks members of the ACSR find the CCSR's actions and attitudes reasonable. Personally, Tolchin said, he was moderately surprised by the some of the CCSR's final decisions. "The CCSR had a reasonably progressive stance on resolutions requiring board diversity," he said.