The corporate world is certainly subject to plenty of criticism, and even hatred. But which companies are hated most? Here’s one look at that question, from 24/7 Wall St.: The Fifteen Most Hated American Companies Of 2010 Customers, employees, shareholders and taxpayers hate large corporations for many reasons. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed many of these to choose [...]
Portfolio 21 invests exclusively in companies with an explicit commitment to the environment, this includes attributes like greener products, sustainable business practices, efficient production methods, and use of renewable energy. Portfolio 21 looked at 2000 companys and invested approximately $400 million in 99 businesses in 21 countries. On December 30, 2010, CSRwire, announced Portfolio 21′s [...]
Why do people do bad things? It’s an ancient question. Certainly, some people do bad things simply because they are bad people. Psychopaths and sociopaths exist, though thankfully they are very few. Whether those few should be classified as “evil,” or as “mentally ill,” or both, is not clear to me. Either way, they certainly [...]
What kinds of political obligations do corporations have? In particular, do they have obligations, like governments do, not to interfere with things like people’s ability to express themselves? See this short blog entry by Leander Kahney, at Cult of Mac: Apple Pulled Wikileaks App Because It “Violated Dev Guidelines” Apple has joined the shameful list of companies that have [...]
Sometimes people ask me which industry sectors contain the “high-impact” companies. That is, which industry sectors include companies whose operations pose the biggest threats to sustainability? In the past, my answer was the oil and gas, mining, power-generation, forestry, and chemical sectors. They continue to be challenged to mitigate their environmental and social impacts. Lately, [...]
‘Business ethics’ and “corporate social responsibility” are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but at the same time represent somewhat different lenses on business practice. Ethics, of course, is always concerned with norms and values, and is basically about what is right and wrong. CSR on the other hand may be about these things, [...]
Stuff happens—accidents occur, spills take place, disaster hits, or product recalls are required. When a company faces these public relations (PR) challenges, they need to recover their reputations and their carefully nurtured trust with important stakeholders. Admitting mistakes and accepting accountability is not easy for senior business leaders or senior public officials. Taking credit for [...]
It’s been a big year for corporate responsiblity. A huge oil spill, continued ructions in the financial sector, landmark decisions in the courts, and a new dawn for online companies around human rights issues. It is never easy to pick the most important stories of the year. Some get huge coverage simply because they feature [...]
It’s been quite a week or so for transparency. The incendiary WikiLeaks release of almost a quarter of a million classified cables from the US diplomatic service has set news media across the world alight with daily revelations that have acutely embarrassed politicians everywhere. Last week also saw the FIFA bribery scandal reach new heights with [...]
For a long time Canada – certainly in the rest of the world – had this image of a very progressive, liberal and forward looking country in terms of social and environmental responsibilities of business. This not only applies to business leaders which from an early time on championed these ideas. To mind comes Maurice Strong [...]