This article originally appeared on SocialFunds.com.

Since 2009, when shareowners filed the first of 21 resolutions that by 2010 had gained an unprecedented 40 percent support, concerns over the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have gone mainstream. Risks associated with contamination by toxic chemicals of community drinking water supplies, the disposal of massive volumes of wastewater, and increased air emissions have been widely covered in the media, threatening the social license to operate of companies engaged in the controversial practice.

"We struck a nerve," Richard Liroff, executive director of the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) (and a frequent frequent GreenBiz contributor), told SocialFunds.com. Now, Liroff continued, "There's a moratorium in the Delaware River Basin, there's been a moratorium in New York State, there's a moratorium in the Province of Quebec. There is a ban in France, there is a moratorium in South Africa, and there is a moratorium in the New South Wales state in Australia."

But the fact remains that the large reserves of natural gas in the United States are widely seen as contributing to a pathway toward national energy independence. Furthermore, natural gas is considered by many as a cleaner bridge fuel to a genuine low-carbon economy. However, as Laura Berry, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), said, "Recent experience underscores the need for hyper vigilance around extractives operations."

To improve corporate disclosure and encourage best practices, ICCR and IEHN collaborated on a Investor Guide, published this week, to help increase corporate disclosure and mitigate the impacts of fracking.

The document grew out of both the bilateral discussions between investors and companies, Liroff said, and a multi-lateral discussion process convened by Stephen Heim at Boston Common Asset Management and Apache Corporation.

According to a description of the multi-lateral discussion process by an attendee from Mercy Investment Services, "Apache hosted a meeting with representatives from oil and gas companies to discuss with investors expectations and methods for helping companies understand these expectations. Based on this session, several groups are working to develop a set of well construction and operation best practices that can reduce hydraulic fracturing's potential harm on water and the environment, plus metrics for their reporting to investors."

Boston Common has engaged with Apache for a number of years on issues relating to corporate reporting and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. In fact, as early as 2007, Heim recognized Apache as "the most improved of any US oil and gas company in addressing climate change."