The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Archive for July, 2010

Activist Investors Claim Record Results on Climate Change

Investors filed a record 101 climate and energy-related resolutions with 88 U.S. and Canadian companies in 2010, a 50% increase from the year-earlier, according to activist shareholder organizations. A record 51 resolutions were withdrawn after the companies agreed to climate change and energy-related commitments.

Italian Firm and Unit to Pay $365 Million to Settle Bribe Charges

The settlement is the latest related to a four-company joint venture that was awarded $6 billion in contracts to build liquid natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria. U.S. officials said a total of $1.28 billion in penalties has been obtained to date in connection with the Bonny Island bribery scheme.

U.K. Institutional Investors Urged to Increase Engagement with Management and Boards

Institutional investors and pension fund managers in the United Kingdom should do more to monitor and engage with the companies in which they invest – or else explain why they have not done so, according to provisions of a new voluntary code issued by the U.K.’s Financial Reporting Council.

Opinion: BP puts costs ahead of environment. Are we surprised?

BP’s failure to stop the worst oil spill in U.S. history is indicative of a much larger problem with companies that have embraced one of the central ideas in management today: stakeholder theory. The idea that companies can meet the needs of “stakeholders” leaves them open to moral abuse without normative principles at its core.

Caution: Mercury Levels in Tuna and Other Fish

You should be concerned about contaminants in certain fish, including some kinds of tuna. The non-profit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recommends minimizing consumption of albacore (white) tuna, a large fish that accumulates moderate amounts of mercury in its fatty tissue.

Definitions: What Do We Mean by “Building a Green Economy”?

The primary way governments around the world are trying to “green” their own economies today is by increasing investment in—and, by extension, creating jobs in—industries on the cutting edge of non-polluting renewable forms of energy, such as solar and wind power.