Just when you thought, oh, the well is capped and Tony Hayward’s gone, maybe we can get back to normal—comes this little bit of news, courtesy of my colleague Chris MacDonald, a business ethics guy in Canada: BP faked a photo of its Houston command center to make it look busier and more determined than [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Business Ethics'
Faked Photos: Is There No End to BP’s Stupidity?
August 2nd, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Transparency vs. Secrecy, propaganda
Crucial Lessons from the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster
July 29th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability, Uncategorized
All deep-sea offshore drilling needs to be shut down until the appropriate safety measures are in place so that Deepwater Horizon is not repeated. It’s a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle than to keep it in to begin with.
Tags: bp·deep sea oil drilling·deepwater horizon·energy policy·fossil fuels·nuclear power
Guest Post: Upsides of Being Ethical: Why Good Guys and Girls Don’t Always Finish Last
July 20th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics
By Alexis Bonari [Editor's note: Yes, this is fairly elementary—but it's nice to be reminded of the basics once in a while. If this topic interests you and you want more depth, I recommend Stephen M.R. Covey's Speed of Trust as well as my own Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits [...]
Tags: Business Ethics·trust
Sign This Petition to End Bailouts, Fight Washington Corruption
July 15th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Ethics in Government
I just did, and I hope you will too. http://www.standfordemocracy.org/ratify/?r_by=21779-1224363-q_0LmAx And while “you’re in the zone,” If you haven’t yet signed the Business Ethics Pledge, you may do so at http://business-ethics-pledge.org.
Tags:
Does Being Green Require Being Good?
June 29th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, International Association of Earth-Conscious Marketers
What about a tougher case? Suppose someone has been involved with the sustainability initiatives over at BP (a company that actually at one point was fairly well regarded by mainstream environmentalists)? Some kind of arbitration system will be needed to determine who qualifies and who does not. Any ideas for how to set that up?
Tags: bp·Business Ethics·halliburton·International Association of Earth-Conscious Marketers·labor conditions·Matthew Ammirati·walmart
Ethics Considerations for Membership in a Green Marketers Association, Part 1: Accomplishments
June 26th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability, International Association of Earth-Conscious Marketers, Uncategorized
Membership in the International Association of Eco-Conscious Marketers will not be open to anyone who claims to be Green. To provide value in the membership, members need to pass both accomplishment-based standards (employment, education/training, and/or volunteer work) and behavioral screens. We’ll talk about accomplishments today, and screens tomorrow
Here are some I’m thinking about:
Tags: green marketers association·International Association of Earth-Conscious Marketers·membership standards
Is SRI in Africa About to Come of Age?
June 21st, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Democracy, Ethics in Government, Peace and War, Social and Economic Justice, Socially Responsible Investing, Uncategorized
Worldwide, SRI now accounts for 1 of every 9 dollars invested. However, even though Africa was a pioneer in this field (not just with the Sullivan Principles but also the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s first-in-the-world SRI index), it has lagged—but rapid growth appears to be imminent.
Tags: arbenz coup guatemala·cia·Mossadeq coup iran·ron robins·socially responsible investing·sri·sullivan principles
BP’s Form Response to Offer of Help: They STILL Don’t Have a Clue
June 20th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability, language
My friend Paul Krupin of Direct Contact PR sent me this memo from the Deepwater Horizon recovery team. Even if the Gulf of Mexico weren’t drowning in BP’s oil–a situation in which you’d expect the form letters would at least act grateful for the advice–this is one of the worst examples of corporate messaging I’ve [...]
Tags: bp company memo·Carl-Henric Svanberg·deepwater horizon·gulf oil spill·Tony Hayward
BP: Can You Say “Criminal Negligence?”
May 27th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability
Recent stories in the New York Times make it clear that Attorney General Eric Holder should be “sharpening his saw” (as Abraham Lincoln said). BP deliberately chose to use a high-risk sealing method in the days before the blast, and ignored warnings that things were going deeply awry, the paper reports.
Tags: atorney general eric holder·bp oil spill·criminal negligence·disaster warnings
Wall Street Reform + Oil Cap + Gay Marriage
July 16th, 2010 · View Comments · Business Ethics, Democracy, Energy & Sustainability, General Commentary, Politics, Protests and Crackdowns, Social and Economic Justice, Socially Responsible Investing, media-general
Rarely do I open up my morning paper and see even one positive story among the day’s major news. Today—though I already knew about two of them from other sources—there were three: 1. The Wall Street Reform Bill has passed both houses of Congress. Is it everything I want? Of course not. Is it more [...]
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Tags: Argentina Gay Marriage·deepwater horizon·news stories·Oil Cap·Wall Street Reform