The CRO Summit April 23 in DC would like to thank our large group of sponsors, and reminds you that responsible companies do business with other responsible companies.  CRO Summit sponsors represent the best in corporate responsibility, and therefore solid partners for you and your business. 

CRO Association Board of Governors in CRO Magazine Cover Story
 
Meet the 16 industry leaders who make up the Corporate Responsibility Officer Association Board of Governors in an up-close-and-personal roundtable. They represent practitioners, providers and influencers.  Organizations represented include IBM, BT, Eaton, FedEx, Phillips Van Heusen, KPMG, SAP,  Crowe Horwath, Harvard University, Miami University of Ohio, George Washington University, the Business Civic Leadership Council of the US Chamber of Commerce, Domtar Paper and Hara. 
 

Business schools’ reliance on theory-driven research ignores the pressing needs of real-world managers

There is a problem brewing within the nation’s business schools that has important implications for business practices and corporate responsibility. How often do you read cutting-edge research related to corporate responsibility coming from business school professors? When is the last time you read research from Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science or Strategic Management Journal spotlighted in The Wall Street Journal or Business Week in the same way you might see research from the New England Journal of Medicine spotlighted in the New York Times or on NBC News?  

When someone next asks you to define “corporate transparency,” show them this:

The 10th Annual CRO 100 Best Corporate Citizens List (pdf)

Why? Three reasons. First, CRO’s 10th annual 100 Best List (compiled by IW Financial and edited by CRO) is completely based on publicly available information. That means the list’s sources are public places accessible to anyone researching Russell 1000® companies—non-secure websites, government and regulatory sources, investment publications and NGO databases.

Second, the methodology used to compile this year’s 100 Best list was debated and voted on in open session by 27 leading corporate responsibility practitioners representing nine major industry segments October 2008 at the CRO Conference in Chicago.

And lastly, for the first time ever, each listed company was asked to review the underlying data in advance of this publication to make sure no publicly available citation was overlooked. Of the 1,011 data edit requests we got back from the listees, 28.3 percent were validated and resulted in data changes. The result? Our most transparent 100 Best list.

Watch the video here

And previously, 100 Best Corporate Citizens Featured on Fox Business News:

Some companies, U.S. House support advisory votes on executive compensation

In mid-January, Hewlett-Packard said directors would allow shareholders at its 2010 annual meeting to vote on whether the company should conduct an annual nonbinding advisory stockholder vote on executive compensation.

If it is approved, the advisory vote will be taken at the 2011 annual meeting “and each year thereafter,” the company said.  And, HP added, it supports federal legislation giving shareholders “an opportunity to express their views on the executive compensation policies of publicly held companies.”

Members of council back U.N.-established ESG principles

The 13 members of the Private Equity Council, among the nation’s largest pools of private capital, have pledged to apply responsible investment guidelines in making their investments.

The agreement reflects discussions between the council and a number of major institutional investors, such as the California Public Employees Retirements Systems,  that often are limited partners in PEC investments.

Some companies expected to avoid regulation by rejecting recovery

The simmering executive pay pot boiled over the first week of February.

President Barack Obama and the treasury department moved to restrict executive pay packages at financial firms receiving “exceptional financial recovery assistance.”

Obama deems paying out of billions in compensation "height of irresponsibility"

When the president calls your behavior “shameful,” you know you have a problem on your hands.

Wall Street’s hat-in-the-hand clamoring for taxpayer help amid the financial meltdown—while shoveling out billions of dollars on bonuses—has triggered a wave of reaction against the financial industry’s traditional compensation gravy train.

Video highlights from the Fall 2008 Conference in Chicago.
Click through for full 2009 schedule.

President Obama focuses on sagging national confidence and economy in inauguration address

Barack Obama called Americans into a "new era of responsibility" during his inauguration Tuesday as the 44th president of the United States, echoing the words and planned policies of his past few months' transition to power. The financial crisis was one of the first issues Obama touched on in his address to the 2 million people gathered in Washington, D.C. and billions more watching on screens around the world.

"Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age," Obama said. Calling on examples of the nation's history of struggle and sacrifice, Obama said U.S. greatness must be earned, both domestically and abroad.

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.

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.

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.

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.”