An update to Liz Umlas’ July post: Mandatory CSR?

In September 2007, Ethical Corporation noted that Malaysia was also putting laws in place around corporate social responsibility (CSR) (and in September 2006, that country’s stock exchange began requiring public companies to report on CSR-related initiatives). Here is the link to the article in Ethical Corporation.

Time and time again, I see people on my side of the corporate social responsibility debate claim that “originally” corporations only came into existence for a “public purpose”.

Some go on to argue that we should reinstate that qualification. Others think we should assume the requirement still exists and impose higher levels of social responsibility on companies.

While history does not support the claim of a golden age when corporations came into being to serve a “public purpose”, it does not prevent society from imposing one now.

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Coyright © 2007 by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. All rights reserved.

Alicia H. Munnell, the Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Science at Boston College, has asked, “Should Public Plans Engage in Social Investing?” in a briefing paper published by the Center for Retirement Research of which she is Director.¹ Her answer:

But even assuming that divestment is an effective mechanism to stop genocide and reduce terror risk and that state legislatures and pension fund boards are the right place to make foreign policy, the issue remains whether pension funds are an appropriate vehicle for implementing that policy. The answer seems unquestionably “no”.²

Is Prof. Munnell saying something outrageous here? If divestment by public pensions could halt genocide and “reduce terror risk”, they still shouldn’t do it?

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Copyright © 2007 by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. All rights reserved.

One of the under-reported heroes of the environmental cause is Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The story below reflects his efforts.

Before turning to the story, I’d like to quote some words of the Patriarch from his visit to the US ten years ago:

To commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, for humans to degrade the integrity of the Earth by causing changes in its climate, stripping the Earth of its natural forests, or destroying its wetlands … for humans to contaminate the Earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life with poisonous substances — these are sins.¹

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