The low-cost airline EasyJet has decided to produce an environmental policy document after a major institutional investor used the lack of one as grounds for voting against its annual report and accounts.
Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) opposed the accounts at EasyJet’s annual meeting, saying that the absence of a green policy was one of four major concerns it had about the company.
Now the company’s chairman, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has said the board will ‘consider the issues raised by CIS’ and commission an environmental policy.
Ian Jones, head of corporate governance at CIS, said the lack of a green policy raised doubts about whether EasyJet ‘can continue to deliver sustainable performance in the long term’.
In response to the insurer’s other concerns, which related to corporate governance and were also raised by other investors, Haji-Ioannou announced that he would step down as chairman of EasyJet in March 2003.
CIS only owns a few thousand shares in EasyJet and does not hold them in its main portfolio. The accounts were adopted despite its protests.