Socially-minded grass roots organizations like media darling Kiva.org and virtual networks such as NED are changing the development and aid industry. Is your company thinking about extending its CSR activities to include these upstarts? We are. I'll tell you more about that, but first allow me defend my assertion that a sea-change (that link is only for those who lean towards the literary) is occuring in the development and aid industry.

One of our clients, just back from Haiti, reported people rioting for food and eating dirt to fill their stomachs. The ever-worsening world food crisis is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it is finally one issue that cannot be blamed on global corporations – or is it? Where are the boundaries of corporate social responsibility today?

 

How much corporate social responsibility (CSR) is enough? How much CSR reporting is enough? These questions start from a mistaken notion of what the responsibility of corporations is.

The campaign to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) during 2008 is well underway. At a time when human rights continue to be under threat around the world, the anniversary is an important reminder that the Universal Declaration belongs to all of us, and is our shared responsibility.

Another inaugural GreenFest in the rear view mirror and what a wonderful host Seattle played - kudos to the Global Exchange/Coop America/Seven Star team for putting on another flawless event, hard to imagine a better team out there, and we’re just lucky that they all love to put on Green Fesitvals.

The more income-producing and complementary projects my wife and I have in our ecopreneurial business, the more stable and secure we feel, careful to not let work override quality of life considerations.

Is Earth Day the new Christmas? That was the headline question of an article in AdAge this past week, leading the cynicism brigade with the opening line: “It's nearly Earth Day: Time to consume more to save the planet.”

We live in a fat society - and food companies are beginning to accept that although they do not bear sole responsibility for the fact, they have to respond to the issue. Now a new study has compared the responses by ten of the biggest food producers to sort out the leaders from the laggards.

I graduated from UNC in May of 1998 and after a month-long surfing trip to Costa Rica I started a job in Washington DC with a networking hardware manufacturer. On the first day of work, they set me up with my email account and off I went into my first real job.

I have often wondered whether a company can truly be evil. Not a company run by evil people, but a place where decades of evil have seeped right into the corporate fabric.

Almost ten years ago, at a Business for Social Responsibility conference in Los Angeles, I attended a presentation by Monsanto. The company made the case that genetically modified foods would cure world hunger. GMOs, Monsanto asserted, would spark the next green revolution. I walked out of the session depressed and upset, wondering why Monsanto had been given a platform at the BSR event. I didn't renew my membership.