Addressing this issue seems to be gaining more importance, and some recent conferences support new trends. The first Annual Business Ethics Summit was held April 21st in New York City. Under the title "Corporate Scandals, Corporate Responsibility and the Media: Who Should We Believe?", the conference brought together journalists, non-governmental organizations, and representatives from the "100 Best Corporate Citizens" that were recently featured by the magazine Business Ethics, which hosted the event.

At this meeting, the business editors from The Washington Post and The New York Times agreed upon the watchdog role played by the media and its responsibility to hold government and corporations countable for their actions. In this regard, David Frishkorn, director of business ethics at Xerox Corp, said that the most recent corporate scandals in the US, including Xerox´s own scandal, only came to light because of good reporting. “Media attention is vital to ensuring a strong, ethical, and vibrant business community," he added.

Information: Vital but scarce

Media coverage of the social actions carried out by companies and their CSR-related initiatives is extremely poor. The results from an informal survey carried out by the host magazine among its subscribers suggest that  here exists a serious lack of knowledge on the part of journalists and society at large on this issue. According  o this poll, subscribers think that nine out of ten Americans do not have a good understanding of what  CSR is and many consider that even journalists and CEOs have a poor understanding of its principles.

Respondents largely disagreed with the line of criticism expounded by The Economist in an article that brought about a heated debate last November. The Economist´s article stated that the allocation of funds and resources to CSR was a mistake. The normal working of enterprises serves a social aim by providing employment and keeping cordial relations with clients, shareholders and workers. Despite opposing to The Economist vision, the great majority of respondents stated that companies engage in CSR merely for public relations.

Likewise, the results from a survey on the relationship between business communication and CSR released by the consultancy firm APCO confirm these general observations. The 419 elite panelists from 10 countries  in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific that  completed the survey agreed on the need of strengthening communication about the social and environmental initiatives companies undertake. Up to one third of the respondents stated that they knew very little or nothing about the activities carried out by companies in their community.

CSR in Latin America

In Latin America the situation is not much better, though local responses continue to emerge. Corporate Social Responsibility, corporate volunteering programs and sustainable business are concepts unknown to the great majority of the population. Journalists are not an exception and they often have very few resources to carry out a proper coverage of CSR practices. To counter this fact, Periodismo Social in Argentina offers practical resources to create approaches to journalistic practices in this regard. It is essential for journalists to be informed and keep updated in order to understand the overall philosophy underlying CSR and be able to distinguish CSR from mere philanthropy or social marketing.

Institute Ethos from Brazil is one of the leading organizations encouraging debate on business ethics. Ethos believes in the essential role the media and the  journalists play in the building of a critical awareness among people that could stimulate public interest initiatives. To this end, Ethos has launched, in its fifth consecutive year, the Ethos Prize for Journalism. The topic chosen for this 2005 edition is “Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability and Millennium Development Goals”.

In addition, Red Puentes, an international alliance of civil society organizations committed to CSR, also organizes a contest for journalists with the aim of rewarding high quality journalism and stimulating the coverage of CSR. Research has a central place within Red Puentes activities. In a recent study on corporate practices, Red
Puentes explored the different dimensions of the  concept of CSR and focus on issues related to its media and academic coverage in Argentina.

ifPeople´s philosophy on CSR

At ifPeople, we believe in the need of promoting sustainable value-driven business models. We think it is essential to publicize innovative initiatives and share our resources. We make many of the tools and resources we have developed about CSR are available at our website - from a bilingual series of reports on tools for Corporate Social Responsibility, to a Spanish guide to environmental impacts of business, and the FairSource model of sustainable trade in services.

We are committed to developing our own company to be sustainable and to contribute to the regeneration of communities and ecosystems. Our approach to responsible business is simple: understand our impacts, measure them, and continuously improve them. We maintain this philosophy throughout our policies, processes, and practices and this drives innovation in our services and performance. This involves engaging our stakeholders about what we are doing and how we are doing it as well as providing them with an opportunity to be involved in the company. One means of communicating with our stakeholders is through our sustainability report, which is forthcoming for its first public edition.