Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a white-hot issue in the nation's boardrooms. But CSR efforts could be leading companies astray, according to the latest report
from CSRwatch.com, which was launched in 2004 to spotlight CSR. "Many corporate managers are 'drinking the Kool-Aid' of CSR and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) in
hopes of improving their public images," says Steven Milloy, publisher of CSRwatch.com. "But in reality, they are harming their businesses, investor interests and the free-
enterprise system." The report stresses that CSR distracts business from business by sidetracking corporate managers from their traditional responsibilities of running the organization...
Contact: Julia Henderson, CSRwatch.com, 301.926.3197, [email protected].
Top Ten "low-lights" for CSR in 2004:
- Royal Dutch/Shell
- Fannie Mae
- Ford Chairman William Ford, Jr.
- Merck
- British Petroleum
- Citigroup and Bank of America
- Monsanto
- McDonald's
- Whole Foods, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Kraft Foods and Procter Gamble
- American Electric Power, Alcoa, Boeing, DuPont, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Toyota and the 32 other companies that belong to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.