Beyond the bottom line
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1236970,00.html
Why would anyone oppose socially responsible companies? asks David
Vidal; because it's a facade, says Andrew Pendleton
Andrew Pendleton and David Vidal
Saturday June 12, 2004
Dear David,
One of the dangers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is that it
sounds like such a good thing. Who could be opposed to the idea of
companies behaving in a socially responsible way?
Unfortunately companies cannot be left to self-regulate. Take Shell,
for example. Until the company's recent fall from grace over the
misreporting of oil reserves, it had successfully made its CSR sound
like a good thing. And yet in Nigeria, where the killing in 1995 of
anti-oil activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the former military dictatorship
precipitated some of the company's past troubles, its relationship
with many communities is still woeful.
.
|