Minority of human resources professionals report existence of company ethics and compliance programs

Less than half of human resources professionals report their companies include ethical conduct as part of employee performance appraisals, a new survey has found.

The study, prepared by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Ethics Resource Center, questioned 513 human resource professionals.

Future of company citizenship and governance efforts take shape in tumultuous times

The “once in a century credit tsunami,” in Alan Greenspan’s words, is crushing old attitudes toward corporate governance while a second tidal wave of reform builds momentum.

The nature and depth of the crisis means “a new set of checks and balances,” particularly on financial institutions, “are desperately needed,” observes Tim Smith, Director of socially responsive investment at Walden Asset Management.

The Center for Business Excellence at Miami University’s Farmer School of Business and Crowe Horwath LLP in partnership with The CRO are seeking to understand how organizations currently view sustainability initiatives, including how they are prioritized, funded and positioned within the organization. As one of its most important initiatives, The Center has been asked by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to represent the U.S.accounting body on a global project involving major accounting bodies around the world and organizations that wish to see sustainability initiatives become more incorporated into strategy and financial reporting.

Speakers from current and future presidential administrations bestowed citizenship awards in five categories 

Change was in the air at the 9th annual U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center Corporate Citizenship Awards dinner Nov. 18 in Washington, D.C. where five companies were honored for their volunteer efforts in the expansive National Building Museum a few miles from the White House. Current Press Secretary and event emcee Dana Perino shared the microphone with several presenters, including President-Elect Barack Obama's civic service advisor Harris Wofford to comment on the past and future of corporate responsibility.

Report shows progress in adopting sustainable campus and endowment practices

The College Sustainability Report Card, now in its third year, found that 66% of the 191 schools it evaluated over the last two years improved their overall sustainability grade, “in part reflecting concern about climate change and the realities of rising oil and gas prices.”

The report, produced by the nonprofit Sustainable Endowments Institute in Cambridge, Mass., this year looks at 300 colleges that together hold more than 90 percent of all university endowments.

Embedding eco-consciousness starts with measuring environmental impact and following market trends, regulations

Like it or not, the carbon-constrained economy is coming. It’s an economy where marketplace forces will demand that companies minimize their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in response to the global climate change issue. It’s an economy where a company’s carbon footprint and GHG emissions profile will have a significant impact on its bottom line. And it’s an economy where companies that apply carbon-savvy thinking to their business decisions will have a clear competitive advantage over those that don’t.

Looking ‘Upstream,’ Waste Management bulks up on materials management

Every corporate board is—or should be—focused on how to minimize its environmental footprint, and waste-solutions provider Waste Management, the largest recycling outfit in North America, is in the mix when it comes to many of those discussions and consultations.

A public company with $13.3 billion in revenue last year, Waste Management is a power in waste-to-energy production, materials management, recycling and trash hauling.

Jim Cramer, the sometimes-trash-talking host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” recently termed Waste Management CEO David Steiner, who has led the company since 2004, “the most pro-shareholder guy I know” among CEOs outside the oil and gas industry, adding that Waste Management is “a really good company” with lots of financial clout.

A game changer for company value?

United States retirement plans have lost trillions of dollars since the subprime meltdown began. The ultimate flight to quality is under way as investors search for safety. The repercussions of this crisis are likely to be far-reaching in how shareowners assess future risks and how they view long-term corporate sustainability.

In the name of transparency, standardized business reporting to get an interactive signature

There’s an XBRL in your future.  That’s shorthand for “eXtensible Business Reporting Language,” an important financial reporting initiative that many large companies have tested, and which the SEC is strongly pushing.

The XBRL idea is a decade old, but it is clearly picking up speed. Its progress prompted Motley Fool commenter Tim Beyers earlier this year to call XBRL “the most important shareholder initiative in a decade.”

With new skills, corporations can be catalyst for change

Why is it that the growing literature on CSR seldom deals with the salient issue of developing the leaders who must ensure their organization’s sustainability process? This large and useful literature on CSR focuses on technology, compliance, risk management, ethics, third-party verification and the marketing tools needed to bring about desired culture change. But, few articles address the daunting task of identifying, then developing, the competencies, mindsets and behaviors essential to those entrusted with blazing the organization’s new path to sustainability.

Disaster network streamlines contributions in disastrous times

September was National Preparedness Month—to a serious degree, at many corporations. Two hurricanes—Gustav and Ike—brought injury and destruction to the southern United States, and provided new tests of business disaster relief planning.

Disaster planning has undergone considerable change in recent years, particularly following the Asian tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina the next year, as companies have faced demands for assistance around the world.

Product supplier offers small businesses, consumers gift cards for old equipment

Office Depot recently launched an electronics trade-in system that pays customers to recycle their old small to medium-size electronics. The project is powered by services and product-support provider NEW Customer Service Cos. and is intended to both help the environment and people and businesses affected by the economic downturn, the company said.

Transform executive development to build Corporate Responsibility leadership

In the foreword of “Authentic Leadership,” author Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, writes, “We need …people of the highest integrity, committed to building enduring organizations. Leaders, who have a deep sense of purpose and are true to their core values. We need leaders with the courage to build their companies to meet the needs of all stakeholders, and who recognize the importance of their service to society.” 

Corporate responsibility has always been about values and value creation. Yet in an economy where corporate acquisitions and layoffs of tens of thousands of workers are more the norm, and serving the greater good often is a distant second, few CEOs have successfully transformed their strategic thinking or how their organizations do business along the lines that George espouses. Why?

Critical steps in solving a trillion-dollar problem

Executives across the globe are very aware that the costs of corruption go far beyond fines and a temporary impact to reputation. Indeed, the costs are multifaceted, long-lasting and tragic.

Some corporations, like Enron, implode under the weight of malfeasance, taking employee livelihoods and pensions with them; while other companies, such as Tyco, survive but are substantially re-organized. Governmental agencies like Fannie Mae, as well as government contractors and suppliers such as BAE and Halliburton, see years of billing and business-development activities subjected to official inquiries. Employees become reluctant to stay with or join companies implicated in corruption scandals.

Vendor execs offer views on GRC, CSR, sustainability applications

With the complex and overlapping GRC, CSR and Sustainability software markets shifting faster than the latest regulation or stakeholder campaign, CRO engaged C-suite officials from the top application providers and solicted their advice on what clients need to do, how the vendors’ companies can help them, and what the next “big things” will be. Their answers on a broad range of pertinent issues follow.

Companies that take corporate social responsibility (CSR) seriously—and their numbers are increasing—have to find ways to map large amounts of disparate data to large numbers of disparate stakeholders. As companies struggle to answer to these stakeholders, difficulties arise in collecting, processing, and publishing the desired information. Professionals who have dealt with substantial compliance or risk management initiatives understand the difficulties of trying to coordinate programs historically handled on a massive number of spreadsheets.

As with areas of corporate compliance and risk management, technology can play a critical role in making sense of CSR data.

Corporation’s role in mitigating risk to attract investor assets

A great deal of attention has been focused lately on the idea of socially responsible investment (SRI). According to an annual report from the Social Investment Forum, approximately $1 of every nine under professional management in the U.S. is involved in SRI. Assets under management linked to SRI in the U.S. alone reached $2.71 trillion by the end of 2007. This number represents 18 percent growth from since 2005, compared with 3 percent growth across the broader investment universe, according to the same report.

Marc Benioff’s technology company volunteers to reshape philanthropy model

When Salesforce.com emerged on the technology scene in 1999 with the novel concept of offering software as an online service, the accompanying PR catchphrase was “the end of software.” Perhaps less known was the parallel mantra, coined for the newly formed Salesforce.com Foundation: “the end of philanthropy.”