"In some cases, we identified that although a proposal raised a material risk at the company in question, the board had already demonstrated appropriate oversight of the risk and evidenced its oversight through robust disclosure or had practices in place that substantially fulfilled the proposal's request," Vanguard said. Vanguard and BlackRock have been under fire from conservative U.S. politicians who say they have over-emphasized sustainability issues, and from liberal activists who say the firms do too little to address global problems. Like BlackRock, Vanguard did not address how the criticism may have shaped votes this year but said its approach to evaluating shareholder proposals "has been consistent over time."