About the issue
The concept of Social Responsibility (SR) brings
together businesses, civil society, labour groups and consumers as
a means of tackling the nastier consequences of production and
consumption.
The efficacy of SR, or Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) as it is often referred, to alleviate
poverty and deliver a more just commodity chain
is contentious. But we believe consumers want to see bold
SR policies from the companies they engage with and, crucially,
they want independent, verifiable information about
the ethical claims companies make.
CI is committed to helping consumers make sense of SR,
and to ensuring corporate rhetoric meets the reality
further down the commodity chain.
Promoting CSR
There are a number of ways in which to raise awareness about and
engagement with SR - through
international standards,
product labelling and certification schemes and through
independent monitoring of CSR. Over the years, CI's work has
touched on all of these issues.
Holding Corporations to Account
Holding corporations accountable for their actions is a major
part of the basic consumer right to be informed. Naming and
shaming bad behaviour and abuses of consumer rights is a good
way of upholding this principle and, ultimately, improving
corporate responsibility.
The
Bad Company Awards is a CI initiative to highlight the
worst abuses of consumer rights by international companies, and our
Real Deal series of investigations expose the unethical
behaviour of some of the world biggest brands.
Visit our Social
Responsiblity - Key Projects section for more on our work in
these areas.