The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Archive for October, 2010

Michael Connor to Keynote McGowan Symposium on Leadership & Ethics – November 6 in Washington, D.C.

Business Ethics Magazine Editor and Publisher Michael Connor will be a keynote speaker at the 2010 McGowan Symposium on Leadership & Ethics on Saturday, November 6, at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The Symposium is expected to attract an audience of prominent business leaders, government and agency officials, deans and students from top business schools, and members of the media.

The Simpsons Discover Dark Side of Corporate Supply Chain

The long-running TV series opened this week with a grim depiction of its own animation being made by hundreds of Asian workers and child labor in a dark rat-filled factory. The sequence was reportedly inspired by reports that Simpson characters are animated in Seoul, South Korea. It closes with a gloomy credit to Twentieth Century Fox.

Opinion: Sometimes Big Change Comes in a Little Blue Box

Influential industry brands are stepping up to support the “responsible luxury” trend. Recently Tiffany & Co., the world’s premier jeweler and the gold standard (pun intended) of the luxury industry, stated that they are actively embracing corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Opinion: When Women Rule the C-Suite

I have a theory. It is that once women rule the “C-suite,” corporate social responsibility (CSR) will become the norm for U.S. business. Why? Call me sexist, but I think that helping others is a function of nurturing and comes more naturally to women than it does to men.

Men and Women Directors Disagree Sharply on Governance

Women serving on corporate boards are far more likely than their male counterparts to favor increased boardroom diversity, new regulations for executive compensation, proxy access for shareholders and enhanced risk management, according to a new survey of corporate directors.

Sustainability: Business Strategy Trumps Reputation

Sustainability may be a massive and vitally important global movement, says columnist Gael O’Brien, but it often suffers from its own ambiguity. “It isn’t surprising that when you ask people what their company is doing in sustainability,” she reports, “the question back is almost always ‘how are you defining it?’”

SEC Puts Proxy Access Rules on Hold

The Securities and Exchange Commission put the proxy access movement on hold, granting a request by business groups to stay the SEC’s recently adopted rules giving shareholders a procedure to put nominees on the ballot at corporate elections for directors. The decision likely makes proxy access moot for the 2011 proxy season.

How Much Oil From Deepwater Horizon Is Still on Sea Floor?

It’s true that oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon fiasco is still sticking to and covering parts of the sea floor for some 80 miles or more around the site of the now-capped well. In early September, researchers from the University of Georgia found oil some two inches thick on the sea floor as far as 80 miles away from the source of the leak, with a layer of dead shrimp and other small animals under it.

Understanding BPA Exposure in Household Plastics

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was initially dismissive of worries about BPA, but increased public pressure and new research on the potential effects of BPA on the brain and the prostate gland in fetuses, infants and young children have forced the agency to revisit its last survey on the topic from 2008.