Investment manager Vanguard released data from its Investor Choice proxy voting pilot on Tuesday, indicating that approximately one quarter of investors participating in the exercise chose to cast their proxy votes in alignment with an ESG-focused policy.

Vanguard launched its Investor Choice pilot in early 2023, offering investors with the ability to select from a range of policy options to meet a series of preferences. The pilot was expanded in 2024 to include five equity index funds comprising more than $100 billion in assets, with the policy options available including the “Company Board-Aligned Policy,” voting in accordance with the recommendations made by the portfolio company’s board of directors; “Third Party ESG Policy,” voting in accordance with the recommendations of Glass Lewis’s thematic ESG Voting Policy,  which follows the view that investment returns can be enhanced through a focus on disclosing and mitigating risks related to ESG issues; “Vanguard-Advised Funds Policy,” administered by Vanguard’s investment stewardship team, and; “Not Voting Policy.”

According to Vanguard, approximately 40,000 investors participated in the program in the 2024 proxy season, with 24.4% selecting the Third Party ESG Policy, 43% selecting the Vanguard-Advised Funds Policy, 30.3% selecting the Company Board-Aligned Policy, and 2.3% choosing the Not Voting Policy.

Vanguard noted that investors in the Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF were three times as likely to select the ESG voting policy, at 78%, while investors that were least likely to choose the ESG policy were those in the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund, at around 18%.

John Galloway, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at Vanguard, said:

“By offering Investor Choice, we are enabling interested individual investors to more fully align their investment portfolios with their personal preferences in order to advance their long-term financial goals.”