The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘Human Rights’

Safe and Clean Water as a “Human Right”

In July 2010 the United Nations agreed to a new resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” While the resolution itself carries no regulatory weight, backers view it as important to raising awareness of the problem and engendering support for solutions.

Apple Expands Supplier Responsibility Program

Apple Inc.’s latest Supplier Responsibility report shows a 25% increase in audits of supplier facilities during 2010 to establish compliance with the company’s standards for hiring, training and worker safety. The company said a report by an independent team of suicide prevention experts about suicides last year at a supplier plant in Taiwan found the supplier’s response “had definitely saved lives.”

Execs Optimistic on CSR Initiatives, Despite Economy

Business leaders responsible for corporate social responsibility and sustainability programs expect budgets and activity for corporate initiatives in the sector to hold steady or increase despite economic uncertainty, according to a new survey. Climate change was chosen more than any other issue as either a “significant” or “very significant” priority for companies.

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.

Large U.S. Company Boards Monitor Corporate Responsibility

Boards of directors of a majority of large U.S. corporations now have committees charged with oversight of environmental and social issues, but that oversight is often not integrated into the companies’ strategic planning and operations, according to a new research study. The study also found that boards at smaller companies are far less likely to have committees charged with oversight of corporate responsibility issues.

Trying to Break the Sweatshop Business Model

One of the most persistent corporate responsibility issues for many global brands is how to manufacture products in less developed countries while paying fair wages and maintaining acceptable working conditions. The New York Times reports on an experiment by a U.S. clothing company that is paying factory workers in the Dominican Republic a “living wage” – three times the average pay of the country’s apparel workers.

New Efforts to Save Forests by Curbing Trade in Illegal Wood

Illegal logging and tropical deforestation are the focus of two newly-announced initiatives – one focusing on the legal risk to companies that buy illegally harvested wood, the other highlighting potential rewards to American business of U.S. legislation that would help end illegal logging and tropical deforestation. “Saving rainforests isn’t just for treehuggers anymore,” said a representative of the Ohio Corn Growers Association,

Google Halts Censorship on Chinese Search

Google announces a “new approach to China,” indicating that China’s behavior toward human rights activists and other efforts “to further limit free speech on the web in China” had led Google to stop censoring its search services on the Google.cn site and instead redirect traffic to its Hong Kong-based servers.

Sustainability: 20 Expectations for Companies by 2020

A major new paper from Ceres, the investor and environmental group, “is a guide to companies on their journey to comprehensive sustainability – from the boardroom to the copy room – and throughout the supply chain,” says the organization’s president.

Apple Increases Its Monitoring of Suppliers

The company says it conducted on-site audits at 102 facilities in 2009, up from 83 in 2008, and trained 133,000 workers, supervisors and managers, a sharp increase from 27,000 a year earlier.