Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
This short feature has been extracted, with permission, from the report.
The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio was a key moment in the evolution of CSR as corporate involvement succeeded in impeding the Summit's ambitious task to 'find ways to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources and pollution of the planet.' Proposals put forward by Sweden and Norway for regulation of multinationals were crushed in favour of voluntary corporate environmentalism. [1]
The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development marked the crowning of CSR. Friends of the Earth led calls for a Convention on Corporate Accountability, [5] instead the summit's agenda shifted from 'corporate regulation' towards a 'multilateral agreement', to developing a 'framework', finally to simply 'promoting best practice'. [6] The calls for corporate accountability continue to grow with campaigns such as International Right to Know Campaign in the USA, the CORE Coalition in the UK and other initiatives internationally pressing for more legally binding rather than voluntary regulation.
If these destructive companies are the leaders, then what does that say about those lagging behind?
Market solutions
Through CSR, companies are seeking to propose solutions which fit within a market-centred worldview. Many pressing social and environmental problems have very clear, though complex, solutions - such as reducing consumption, paying a price that reflects true costs and extending regulation. If society's primary approach to tackling major social and environmental problems is to enable the powerful interests that caused the problems to profit from their resolution, then the very intention of solving these problems is subsumed to the interest of profit.
While smaller scale changes could be achieved with CSR, we will never achieve a just and sustainable society without dealing with the structural issue of corporate power and the corporate profit motive. The question is, can CSR be seen as a step towards that goal or does it hinder efforts to dismantle corporate power? Since companies cannot act in any wider interest than the interest of their shareholders to make profit, CSR is of limited use in creating social change. Since CSR is also a vehicle for companies to thwart attempts to control corporate power and to gain access to markets, CSR is a problem not a solution. Efforts to control corporations' destructive impacts must have a critique of corporate power at their heart and a will to dismantle corporate power as their goal, otherwise they reinforce rather than challenge power structures, and undermine popular struggles for autonomy, democracy, human rights and environmental sustainability.
Further reading
The Corporate Watch report "What's Wrong with Corporate Social Responsibility?" is available from their website or for 3 per copy inc. P&P from Corporate Watch at: 16B Cherwell St. Oxford, Oxfordshire OX4 1BG Tel:+44 (0)1865 791 391
References
1 Kenny Bruno 'The Corporate Capture of the Earth Summit' Multinational Monitor vol 7 Jul/Aug 1992. 2 Shell 'Profit and Principles - Does there have to be a choice? The Shell Report 1998' 3 Ibid p 46 4 Ibid. p128 5 Friends of the Earth International 'Towards Binding Corporate Accountability' 5/10/01 6 Christian Aid, 'A World Summit for Business Development?' 2002 7 http://dictionary.cambridge.org viewed 12/12/05.
8 Toyota and Alcoa, along with BP, come top in the 'Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World' listings by Corporate Knights and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. www.global100.org 9 Susan de Muth, 'Power Driven' The Guardian 29/11/03. For more information see www.savingiceland.org 10 With projected sales of 240,000 hybrids for 2006, the Prius accounts for less than 3% of the 9.06 million cars Toyota has predicted it will produce in 2006. http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/20/business/toyota.php). In 2004, Toyota exported over three times as many RAV4's, a model in its Sports Utility Vehicle range, as it did Priuses (Toyota, 'Toyota in the World Data book' March 2005 11 Full details of the case of Nike vs Kasky can be found at //www.reclaimdemocracy.org/nike/
Analysis
o o o
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Codex alimentarius Copenhagen lobbying Counting carbon Credit unions CSR Ethical market 2008 Ethical consumption & social class Ethical shopping & price Ethical jewellery Ethical funerals Export zones Fair Trade zones Fair Trade schemes Gold industry Greenwash Green marketing Is that what you call good service? Mutuality & capitalism Nanotechnology Oppressive Regimes 2011 Palm oil & RSPO Palm oil Pornography Public Spending Sustainable timber Takeovers of ethical companies
Related Pages
Features Greenwash Green marketing Boycotts Nestle boycott profile
Advertising
Working for us Contact Us Advertising Best Buy Label Media Enquiries Members Area Co-op structure Invest in ECRA FAQs Subscriber Area Help Consultancy Corporate Critic Policy Development Screenings Print Magazine Back Issues Latest Issue Stockists Ratings Animal Rights Environment Human Rights Politics Sustainability Website Info Content Usage Linking to Us Privacy Policy
T&Cs Privacy Copyright Strategy & SEO by Orange Tree Digital Development by Idonix