CSR Update – Aug 27, 2010

The Twittersphere exploded with hundreds of CSR professionals condemning and rebutting the expose written in the Wall Street Journal on August 23rd entitled: “The Case Against Corporate Social Responsibility.”  The article penned by Aneel Karnani, associate professor of strategy at the University of Michigan, focused on the fact that executives owe a single duty in their particular job/company and that is to maximize returns for shareholders.

Here are a few highlights of those responses:

CSR Consultant and Sustainability Reporting Expert, Elaine Cohen, voiced her thoughts.

Author Aman Singh, CSR Editor at Vault.com collectively interviewed various corporate CSR executives and provided an excellent summary of their responses.

Business Respect chimed in with a “Reply to the Case Against CSR – The Latest Version.”

The president and CEO of the Business for Social Responsibility, Aron Cramer, struck back.

Author Scott Henderson talked about how new tools are empowering a more active, engaged global population and can create new opportunities to solve old challenges.

A few others from this week’s blogs and news:

“How to Incorporate Philanthropy Into Your Business – Giving Back Creates Advantages.”

“Trust and Consequences” – Thought provoking piece by the talented Christina Arena. Trust does and will continue to matter.

Fabian Pattberg reminds us that we must all work together to contribute to the sustainability of our planet and shared the TED talk from WWF’s Jason Clay.