Categories: 50 Most Socially Responsible Corporations, Business

Top 50 Socially Responsible Corporations

These companies have made doing good a big part of their business

by macleans.ca on Monday, June 14, 2010 9:00am - 28 Comments

General Mills Inc.

  • There are five women on the company’s 14-member board of directors, which is rare in the food industry.
  • GM is a member of the AIM-PROGRESS Responsible Sourcing group, an industry task force that collaborates to ensure best practices throughout the packaged-goods supply chain. To verify compliance with its own supplier code of conduct, General Mills utilizes independent audit firms to monitor working conditions in its supply chain.
  • Stimulates sustainable agriculture by developing best-in-class agricultural practices, using conventional hybrid crop varieties to gain greater yields, and improving the environmental performance of production-scale farming practices.
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  • oppoguy

    Why no credit unions or co-ops? That's where the most of the innovation in CSR is taking place in Canada. For instance, Mountain Equpment Coop alone must be doing more CSR than most companies on this list.

    Suggest you revisit the methodology.

  • ananymus

    Did you take this fact into account that Nokia had provided eaves dropping technology for the government of Iran to track down their opposition?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

      That's part of their Corporate Social Responsibility portfolio.

    • ballz

      no but ur mom did

  • hosertohoosier

    Corporations do good by making profits, paying taxes, obeying the law, creating jobs, and conducting research. The impact of a few do-gooder deeds pales in comparison to the social benefits of things like the invention of the PC, television or the automobile.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

      You've got that right. Corporations exist because they are an efficient way of organizing productive capital. They have no other purpose. They do the world the most good by excelling at their line of business. Corporate social responsibility is often just a cynical attempt to make money out of nothing. Dupont has spent millions of its own capital trying to kick-start the creation of a global cap and trade system. Why? Because they've been investing hundreds of millions in energy-saving technology since 1993. But it's not good enough for them to just save money on energy. They want to be paid twice for that investment by selling carbon credits on all emissions they've "prevented", going back to 1993. Pure unbridled greed masquerading as social corporate responsibility.

  • so-so

    IBM CORP have made doing good a big part of business? Oh ya! did you know IBM Canada is in Court in Quebec against their oldest employees for cuting retirement wages by more than a third and medical benefits to nothing. Is that what you call "Socially Responsible Corporation" specially when these employees were at two years of retire?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Raging_Ranter Raging_Ranter

    Corporations are owned by shareholders, not "stakeholders". I'm not sure I want to invest in a company that allows all stakeholders a "seat at the table".

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/DerekPearce DerekPearce

    The information for some of these entries is almost useless. The Suncor and Talisman entries made me laugh out loud. Socially responsible my arse.

  • papertiger

    SUNCOR? really, Suncor? Listing their reclamation process of the tailings ponds (albertas gulf coast) might have meant something (albeit very little) if it had happened BEFORE the government sued them for killing THOUSANDS of migratory birds with their negligence. I remeber last year when they had their little media plant cheerleaders saying "if the birds are dead, where are they?" now that they are poised to pay out big (but not big enough) they try to cover their butts and get a "social responsibility award"?!? What a joke.
    Oh and as to the other point about them building a leisure centre in downtown Fort Mac, yeah this is real nice of them, but maybe not quite as nice as if they were paying a fair rate of royalties to the government so that Fort Mac could afford to build it's own leisure centre, not to mention about a hundred other projects like widening the highway of death leading into town, etc, etc, etc.

    • RagingRanter

      Thousands of migratory song birds get killed by smashing into Toronto's high rises each summer. At lease Suncor is trying to clean up its mess.

    • Fort Mc Resi.

      It was Syncrude my friend and not Suncor……I know Suncor is a "socially responsible" company…..and they do a lot in the community and for the aboriginal people……I can say this, being the resident of Fort Mc. Also Suncor helps community development by means of various grants…..And what do you think about Oil Sands, is a "very poor" judgement about such a vast industry……As canadians, we need to find out ways to develop these responsibly….so that we don't harm the env. and people and flora and fauna in the area….Insfrastructure is a big "opportunity for development" in the area…..and I can say Suncor is doing its part….rest is all "hear-say"

  • no way

    LO'real? They test on, and kill, millions of animals a year in horrible ways – now thats social responsibility? Discredits this list in its entirety.

    • Oisin

      supposedly they stopped voluntarily a while back, apart from that they seem bend on buying up anything they can including pharmaceutical company's and stuff like "the body shop" which is why i ended up looking up stuff about them for an essay. The woman who founded the body shop sold out of for possibly 160 million£.

  • pdpd

    It's worth pointing out to some of the naysayers (and boosters, for that matter) that the literature about the possible impact of CSR on profit is very ambivalent. If anything, it seems to usually be a wash. David Vogel's 'Market for Virtue' has a good survey on this. So for all the gnashing of teeth about shareholders vs. stakeholders, or how CSR is 'good' for profit, or whatever, there is almost nothing to support those arguments at the 30000 foot level of analysis as suggested here (and in the comments).

    So we can recycle good-old "yay-CSR/boo-profit" or Friedmanite "boo-CSR; it's bad for the economy" arguments, but at the end of the day whether CSR is good or bad for a given situation (or company) is probably entirely contextual. There is simply no data to support the hysterical comments here.

    • hosertohoosier

      The fact that CSR has no net social benefits should be a very good reason not to do it. We are talking about the investment of shareholder money in these projects. Indeed, corporate social responsibility is emblematic of a larger problem that helped cause the financial crisis among other things. Shareholders have too little influence over management.

      • pdpd

        Well, there is no solid data on profitability. Companies that invest heavily in CSR tend to perform similarly to peers in that respect. That trend extends to ethical mutual funds too, by the way, as they tend to perform very similarly to peers as well. This ambivalence is uncomfortable for pretty much both sides of the debate, as you can imagine.

        I didn't mean to suggest that CSR's "social benefits" are in question, except to imply that we run into a level-of-analysis issue. Firms 'doing' CSR is almost always a clear "net social benefit" at the local level, and should be applauded as such. But it is entirely possible that CSR can act as a cynical PR campaign tool to frustrate more formal regulation. So that's what I meant by the importance of context.

        But the whole corporate governance issue, which seems to be what you are most interested in, is really a separate issue. I would agree that most shareholders have little input on management, but those concerns are overwhelmingly non-CSR related, as any Magna shareholder who has to swallow buying out those class B shares this month will attest to. The whole CSR as nefarious scheme to defraud shareholders spiel is indeed a potential problem, but one so remote that a case has never even been brought in Delaware court (the de facto court of record since a huge number of Fortune 500 companies are based in Delaware). The problem simply hasn't manifested itself in the real world. But we could agree that corporate governance is a neglected issue, and that firm orientation to CSR should be clearly articulated to shareholders in annual reports.

        And I think you would have a really hard time blaming CSR for the financial crisis!

    • RagingRanter

      I'm very much in favour of responsible, ethical behaviour on the part of corporations and their officers. We don't see near enough of it. I am NOT in favour of Corporate Social Responsibility programs, because they represent one of two things, A) cynical PR exercises, or B) a surrender to radical social activists who ought not to have a say in how shareholder money is spent. I'm also in favour of ethical consuming, although that definition will vary according to the individual. For me, it means I don't eat seafood because we're pushing our oceans to the brink. I drive a fuel efficient car, I use public transit, and I try to minimize my waste. But I'll make those decisions myself. I don't give "stakeholders" a say in the matter. I expect the same from the companies I invest in.

  • Peggy

    +Social Responsibility is crucial. There are many people out there like myself, who, for more than twenty-five years have been doing community work, often without any pay and having to dip into my own pocket and that of my family to keep the work with youth and single parents going. The only reward for this work is seeing the results of if. There are thousands like me in Ontario alone. We work to make society better for all so partnerships with corporations are precious. For instance, three years ago, I started a movement against bullying. That movement is now finding its way into boardrooms, where bullying is a growing problem. And yes, when companies respond to organizations they reap real benefits. Every staff and Board Member , their families and friends shop at Loblaws because Loblaws knows how to help!!

  • rawr

    rawr.

  • D. wilson

    I could not believe that Direct Energy was on this list. Mention Direct Energy in a crowded room in any Canadian province where they do business and you are guaranteed to hear many horror stories of coersion and harassment by salespersons and inflated rates on the accounts. In trying to get some information I discovered that the call centre canvassing for new accounts is based in Florida and the customer service department is outsourced to India.

  • ur all stupid

    No. Corporations only maintain a good self image because of money. Enough said.

  • rawr

    rawr

    rawr!!!

  • http://www.kooora.com zouhir

    hey people, where is johnson and johnson
    it does not make sense

    • ballz

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  • bob

    in ur @$$

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