CSFB gets fire from environmentalists

One of the big swiss financial institutions, Credit Suisse, gets criticism because it serves as financial advisor to one of Shell's oil project in Sakhalin Island, Russia's Far East and home to the world's last population of critically endangered Western Gray Whales.

Protest sparked off from US (RAN, Pacific Environment) to Switzerland (Greenpeace). The issue has also been commented by some swiss bloggers.

Will CSFB take up the issue and react? Will they consider whether this project respects their business ethics or not?

With regard to Shell - for them the challenge is ongoing. In one of the previous posts (Accountability Rating 2005) you will notice that the Oil companies made it to the top: the Royal Dutch Shell Group succeding to be ranked number 2, behind BP. Will they reconsider this project?

Where does the business need to stop? A tough line to draw...

The Geography of Corporate Giving

A new US study shows the geographical location of Company Headquarters influences the types of social programs it sponsors.

On HBSWK you can read an interesting interview with Christopher de Marquis, one of the authors of the study.

He suggests that there are three main factors that influence corporations to follow locally established patterns: 1) what is encouraged and supported by government, 2) what peers are doing locally, 3) what is believed 'right'.

Accountability Rating 2005

European firms do better than their US competitors

The Accountability Rating tool is a temptative to measure which businesses align their strategies with society's needs, and which are paying only lip service to their responsibilities. It was developped by the csrnetwork and AccountAbility, a UK-based thinktank.

Their summary of this years' result:

The average overall score among Fortune Global 100 companies has risen from 24 in 2004 to 32 (out of a maximum of 100). One-third of companies achieved a score of 40 or more, compared with only one in ten in 2004.

The range of performance across the Global 100 is wide, stretching from only one point to a top score of 78. In general, scores remain disturbingly low. The results suggest that few of today’s biggest companies are as smart as they might be. The gap between the leaders and the laggards raises important questions about the latter’s ability to manage their risks and opportunities.

Read more

Competency Framework

The CSR academy let's you download its Competency Framework as free pdf. It's objective is to help you integrate CSR in your organisation and provides a set of core characteristics to help managers to integrate responsible business decision-making.

Roche and its heavy burden with Tamiflu

Another interesting article from Ethical Corporation on the huge responsability faced by Roche with its anti-flu drug Tamiflu.

Though they have learned some lessons from past experiences with AIDS-drugs, a mistake in handling supplies could have fatal consequences for the company's reputation.

Read article...

Nestlé's move into Fairtrade

Nestlé recently announced to produce a fair trade coffee. A columnist from the 'Ethical Corporation' on Nestlé's difficulty to get acceptance for that...
Read more here

Looking for a quick fix - Social Audits no help

The guardian on a report arguing that a majority of social audits are missing violations of workers' rights. A recommendation from the report is to place workers and unions at the centre of the auditing process and makes the case for a more comprehensive approach.

Positive mentions of well-known brands as Gap, Nike and Reebook.

Read the article of the Guardian

The report from the clean-clothes campaign