Communications

Some marketers call for clear definitions, enforcement to curtail unsubstantiated claims

At the Federal Trade Commission, it’s not easy being green. The agency’s Green Guides for years have provided guidance on what sort of environmental claims are permissible.  But words like “sustainable” and “renewable” weren’t commonly thrown around in 1998 amid the last revision.  And few at that juncture had dreamed of “carbon offset” markets or heard of  “carbon neutral” behavior. So while there is general agreement the guides need to be updated, the effort has stirred lots of comment.

To avoid the sins of greenwashing, look between the lines

Corporate responsibility officers frequently find themselves in tough positions. Striving to help their companies improve environmental and social performance, CROs want to promote an organization’s successes while simultaneously preventing others in the company from overstating accomplishments. Unfortunately, as a recent in-store survey of product-specific environmental claims suggests, CROs might need to be a bit more vigilant about the environmental claims being made on product packaging.

Manual approaches to data-gathering exhaust resources and lead to lost business opportunities

Companies around the world are adopting sustainable business practices focused on improving global economic, social and environmental conditions, and they look to corporate sustainability reports—or corporate responsibility reports—to promote their positive brand with internal and external stakeholders.

Corporations should be candid and communicate to multiple audiences

Regardless of what business you’re in, the toy industry’s recent ordeals concern you directly. The patterns and public challenges are broadly relevant, and the lessons to be derived are universally applicable to diverse professional and industrial pursuits.

Flag pulls dedicated staff person in the U.S. in favor of consultants, U.K. staff.

Despite the surge in CSR reporting in the United States, CSR communications agency Flag decided to take a lower profile in North America, opting to close its one-person Chicago office in favor of servicing its high profile clients with consultants, and with staff, from its Cambridge, U.K., headquarters.

Opening the channels of corporate responsibility communication can maximize share value.

Corporate responsibility (CR) has become a major concern of corporations and their shareholders, as a recent Thomson Financial survey of investor relations officers (IROs) and investors shows. The survey, which considered CR to include governance trends as well as social issues, found that over 82 percent of investors consider CR criteria when evaluating their investments. The survey, conducted in March, also shows that nearly 73 percent of shareholders and 59 percent of IROs believe CR impacts share price.

Best practices in communicating corporate responsibility activities.

While reporting has become commonplace, corporate responsibility information is not reaching those who have the greatest potential for furthering a company’s corporate responsibility agenda. To better engage stakeholders, companies should make CR reporting part of an integrated CR communications strategy.

Advice from experts at BP, BSR, McDonald’s, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.

With a record number of companies around the world annually increasing staff and expenditures to publicize their corporate social responsibility (CSR) credentials, the time seemed right to survey some of the most experienced practitioners in the field about how they promote CSR achievements. The goal: to learn their dos and don’ts, the musts and must-avoids. Here’s a summary of what we found.

Before corporate citizenship can become a way of acting, it must be a way of thinking, and the only way to accomplish that is to embed it fully into your brand.

Companies like Timberland, Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and Seventh Generation were “born” with good genes for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Each company was founded with a mission that included responsibility to the environment and community, but that is not to say it is easy for them. CSR takes constant vigilance and discipline. Companies like General Electric were not created with sustainable standards, yet they are leading the corporate world in transforming themselves and imbedding sustainability into every aspect of their business.