CSR Accountability Includes Ability to Vote for "Corporate Hall of Shame" Designation

Are CSR executives in companies who have found themselves making the list of corporate abusers by Corporate Accountability International quaking in their boots right now? After all, it's that time of the year when this watchdog organization that has been challenging corporate abuse for more than 30 years has opened its 2010 virtual ballot center to CSR professionals, members of the public and anyone in between to cast their vote on who they consider to be the worst of corporate abusers. The ballot currently has eight candidates competing for the top spot in the "Corporate Hall of Shame": BP, Monsanto, Nestle, McDonald's, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Chase and Chevron. You also get an opportunity to "write in" your own corporate bete noire. And when you scroll over the corporate logo of the featured candidates, you get a succinct sentence on what earned them the potential designation.

The vision at Corporate Accountability International is described like this: "Today the air we breathe, the water we drink and our very democracy are under increasing threat from corporate abuses. Corporations use industry trade associations, corporate lobbyists, political connections and campaign contributions to promote their narrow interests. Corporate Accountability International is working toward a world where major decisions affecting people and the environment are based on the public interest, not on maximizing corporate profits.To reach this vision, corporations must obey the law, limit their political influence, and be more transparent about their activities." And while I don't know if CSR executives at the targeted corporations see the negative exposure as something to fear, I have to think it gives them pause. No matter how you slice it, grassroots actions that are well coordinated that can lead to international policy negotiations usually get the attention of high-level officials and their investors, of course.

Among the campaign victories espoused by Corporate Accountability International are in the areas of infant formula expose of Nestle, nuclear weaponmaker that claims to have driven GE out of that business and influencing Waste Management's high contributions to lobbying and political campaigns. They've also been working on a steady spotlight on the tobacco industry since 1994. They have a strong campaign exposing the environmental and social impacts associated with fast food chain systems and are equally vigorous on what they call corporate control of water. In an ideal world, our society wouldn't need watchdog organizations, of course, if only we could count on all corporations to consistently abide by high ethical standards. After all, ethical consumption is made easier for us all when we have ethical products and services from which to choose. So are CSR executives of "Corporate Hall of Shame" candidates watching? One can only hope so.

But not as much I hope that some of these companies bring in enlightened CSR professionals. And by that I don't mean folks who will simply spin the facts or suggest quick-fix solutions in an attempt to get out of the corporate abuser race. I'm talking about corporate social responsibility professionals who are valued, respected and given the authority to revamp their organizational culture. The kind of culture that demands that the company ceases and desists from conducting business with known and potentially harmful consequences to humans and ecosystems to one that seeks to repair, restore and renew.

Who knows, maybe the folks at Corporate Accountability International could then launch a "Corporate Hall of the Recovered."