They included some early major wins on the advisory motions, including a 70% vote among Costco's investors to adopt net-zero greenhouse gas reduction targets and 95.4% in favor at Jack in the Box on a report addressing plastic packaging.

In May, a majority of shareholder votes approved a proposal to increase efforts to "eliminate deforestation and the degradation of primary forests in its supply chains," according to sponsoring organization Green Century Funds.

And yet, as the Wall Street Journal put it in a headline, "Investors balk at tough climate proposals." Average support on environmental proposals dropped from 32% last year to 27% in 2022, it found. 

"The drop in overall approval for ESG-related proposals partly reflects low support for a wave of new anti-ESG proposals from conservative groups, which are also included in the data, said Heidi Welsh, executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute," the Journal reported. 

It's likely there's also a concern among larger shareholders that proposals could push for specific strategies and tactics that might be financially disadvantageous. As BlackRock wrote in May:

"BIS is more likely to support shareholder proposals that are consistent with our request to companies to deliver information that helps us to understand the material risks and opportunities they face, especially where this information is additive given the company's existing disclosures. … Conversely, we are not likely to support those that, in our assessment, implicitly are intended to micromanage companies. This includes those that are unduly prescriptive and constraining on the decision-making of the board or management, call for changes to a company's strategy or business model, or address matters that are not material to how a company delivers long-term shareholder value."