CSR in 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

As we all switch calendars and reflect on the old year and the new, here are a few looks forward and back at the state of CSR:

• CSRwire reports the Top Corporate Social Responsibility News of 2007
• Ethical Corporation offers A Prediction for 2008, a list of the 15 Leaders Who Made a Difference in 2007, and a review of last year's predictions.
• Mallen Baker offers his own interpretation in 2007: A Review of the Year

After another year of weekly news analysis for the BC Center for Corporate Citizenship, I started putting together my own list of the top news stories for the past year.  It's a work in progress, but here goes:

1. The climate change debate shifts from whether it exists to how we should respond; Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize
2. Chinese products containing toxic substances brings attention to consumer safety and starts to shift attention back to worker conditions
3. The TXU sale and Environmental Defense’s role in it show the power of green investors
4. Faith-based CSR expands the sustainability movement to middle America
5. Socially responsible investing expands from negative screening into opportunistic investing in solutions to the world’s social and environmental problems
6. Global water scarcity raises visibility for processing in developing countries and for the problems inherent in drinking bottled water.
7. Plastic bags are under attack, with some cities banning them, enlightened grocery stores offering re-usable bags, and the “I am Not a Plastic Bag” campaign taking the fashion world by storm.
8. Buy-local movements are especially strong for agriculture, as “locavore” enters the dictionary to describe those who try to eat locally-produced food.
9. Our consumerist culture is up for debate as some try to bring in trendy green products that spread the message, while others say that wasteful lifestyles are the underlying problem and incremental change is not enough.
10. Voluntary standards have both spread and proliferated, with tension between creating standards that are likely to be adopted and standards with teeth.

Disagree?  More to add?  Let me know... I'm thinking of turning this into a longer piece.

Comments

[Michael]

I am interested in learning mofre about faith-based CSR... this is a new topic to me.

Michael Deas