We live in a world where everything we used to know seems to rapidly change. The tremendous speed at which information circulates signifies also the speed at which things around us are changing. Many things that we used to take for granted are bound to change in times like ours, when certainties and long term predictions are simply impossible. The times we live in are characterized by brand new developments; never before people could communicate with each other that easily, even if they were separated by thousands of kilometers. Never before we had the democratization of knowledge that free internet brought to us. And the list is endless.
Everything is changing: nowadays, countries are less strong than before and multinational corporations make decisions that affect the lives of millions. This is the reality at the moment; whether we like it or not, it already happened. And this is precisely why I think that the crucial issue of corporate social responsibility must be addressed seriously and responsibly.
Today, corporations must act responsibly and take into consideration that the planet itself counts on their wise decisions. We cannot act naïve or pretend to; corporations aim to maximize their profits, otherwise we would have called them non-profit organizations! However, we have reached the moment when decisions must be taken only after careful consideration concerning the environmental impact of those decisions. Climate change is not a euphemism; it is a painful, dangerous and absolutely true fact. The fight against climate change is one of the most important struggles of the human race in the history of mankind.
There is no alternative!, as the late Margaret Thatcher would have put it. We must act now to protect the environment; consequently, ourselves too. The influential Canadian magazine Maclean’s seems to have understood this and this is why it recently published its list of the Top 50 Socially Responsible Companies for 2013 in Canada. The list is a result of the partnership of the magazine with the sustainability research company Sustainalytics.
The list measures the annual performance of brands in terms of their performance in a broad range of environmental and social strategies. To make it more clear, these companies are not Canadian but rather international and multinational companies with a strong brand presence in Canada, or they are Canadian-listed. The list categorizes the top 50 companies across 10 industries: banks, energy & utilities, food & beverage, industrials, materials, retailing, technology, telecom-electronics, textiles, footwear & apparel and finally transportation & logistics.
Let’s now take a look at some brands that made it to the list. If we were to start with cars, I don’t think that it will surprise anyone that BMW and Ford made it to the Maclean’s list. BMW has already proven its interest and focus towards a sustainable future due to its experimentation with the future of cars, which, it goes without a saying, is electric. Moreover, the BMW Group Supplier Innovation Awards aims to make the brand’s suppliers to think of sustainable solutions.
Ford Motor Company also made it to Maclean’s list. That was hardly a surprise as only that year the 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid was awarded in the annual Green Living Show, Canada’s largest consumer show dedicated to a greener, more sustainable, lifestyle. Furthermore, Ford has set a goal to reduce its gas emissions by 30% by 2025 in what must have been a clear proof that Ford deserved to be in the list.
In the industry of food & beverage, the presence of Starbucks on that list also sounds like the way to be. The American coffee company is well known as a “green friendly” brand that doesn’t hesitate to conduct campaigns that aim to bring solutions to big social problems. More specifically, and always according to Maclean’s list, Starbucks has achieved LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for many of its stores around the world. Moreover, Starbucks has already announced that it plans to volunteer 1 million community service hours in the near future!
Other famous food & beverage brands that made it to the list include Kellogg and Pepsi. The former will provide more than a billion (!) breakfasts by 2016, part of its Breakfasts for Better Days Hunger Relief Initiative, while the latter makes the difference with its One Simple Thing program that allows Pepsi’s employees to pursue a work-life goal, such as flexible working arrangements, for example.
In the crucial field of industrials Philips stands out for being one of the few companies that publishes its environmental performance along with its financial report. We shouldn’t forget that transparency is a key issue that big corporations should address in order to be truly convincing to our eyes that their strategies are respectful to the environment and the common good. General Electric Company made it to Maclean’s list also because it donated $5 million in total to the Robin Hood Foundation for the victims of hurricane Sandy and to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
As for the technology field, Dell was included in the list for terminating the use of mercury in the manufacturing of its new notebooks, among other things. Cisco Systems Inc. on the other hand was rewarded for its more than satisfactory 96% of all new products that include “design for environment” standards. As for Intel Corp. it actually tripled its percentage in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from 20% that had originally predicted to 60%!
There are many more companies that made it to this prestigious list by Canadian magazine Maclean’s. One thing is for sure, though: governments and civil societies must always try to make sure that doing “business as usual” should include social responsibility and environmental friendly strategies. In that way, we can all together hope for a better and sustainable future…



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