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• Haiti rehabilitation
ILO steps in
• Social media
New activist resource
• Infant formula
Still non-compliance
• Mobile phones
Do health dangers remain?
Healthy choices, healthy profits?
- Mallen Baker, 2 May 2008
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Features:
Ethics and financial performance: The big question – Is there really a business case?
There is no catch-all “business case” for ethics, just good and bad business judgments. And always a healthy slice of luck
For instance, one of the most common questions I still get asked by managers and journalists alike is for figures to show that “doing CSR” has a measurable and inevitable positive impact on a company’s share price, or on its bottom line.
It is a mirage, a distraction. Such figures that do exist are based on a fundamentally flawed premise.
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Comments:
So let's build tools to drive the business case - Stephane de Messieres, 6 Jun 2008
Mallen,
Thanks for a great article. I agree with your analysis of the current situation, but there are good reasons to be optimistic that this will change. The internet and new mobile phone technologies are revolutionizing the way that people gather, organize and access information. This is important, because even a die-hard "responsible consumer" today is easily overwhelmed in trying to understand how so many brands and companies perform on so many social and environmental issues. If people have convenient access to credible information about CSR, there are good reasons to believe that the niche market will grow. We may not see an "ethical consumer revolution" today, but if we provide consumers with tools to navigate these issues then we can expect that more and more people will "walk the walk" of socially responsible consumption. You correctly highlight the notorious difficulty in normalizing and quantifying CSR performance. So if it comes down to a judgment call, let's find ways to gather judgments together in a way that is useful to the consumer. Our team at Citizens Market has taken up this challenge. We want to empower consumers with tools and information, thereby accelerating the business case for CSR.
Stephane de Messieres
Executive Director
Citizens Market
www.citizensmarket.org
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