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 Newsbreak, in partnership with the UK Embassy, started a one-year program in 2007 to make journalists more aware of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how to cover issues surrounding it. The UK government has a keen interest in corporate governance as part of its economic reform program.
The program consists of media dialogues with corporate executives in Manila and Davao City, training of journalists on reporting on csr issues in Cebu and Manila, surveys of how large corporations and small and medium enterprises practice csr, and online reports covering a wide range of csr issues.
Highlights of our training and media dialogues can be found on our Web site. These, plus our stories and surveys, now make up a worthy data base on csr in the Philippines.
This hard-copy special issue, which caps our year-long partnership with the UK Embassy, explores in more depth some of the subjects that we have covered online, apart from presenting new issues.
Overview
- Getting Out of Public Relations and Philanthropy
CSR in the Philippines is still largely experimental
- CSR, Southeast Asian Style
Should CSR be voluntary or imposed by law?
- Yes, SMEs do CSR
A Newsbreak survey
CSR and the Environment
- Facing the Inconvenient Truth
Some companies now address climate-change issues
- Garbage Power
Clean energy from waste in Montalban
- The Greening of Tourism
It makes good business sense
Social Entrepreneurs
- Tapping OFW Money for Community Development
Profit and social impact mix well in this business
- International Network of Social Entrepreneurs Is Here
Business groups support first Ashoka fellows.
- Profitable Generosity
An entrepreneur makes money out of providing innovative low-cost homes.
Issues
- Winning Corporate Hearts and Minds
PBSP and LCF preach the CSR gospel
- The Perils of Technology
PLDT employees question the company’s CSR program
- CSR Begins at Home
Some companies keep a wall between labor issues and CSR
- Sin and Sensibility
Are companies that make harmful products socially responsible?
- Teaching CSR: Work in Progress
How Philippine schools teach students to look beyond the bottomline
- Mixed Bag
Review of a casebook
Philantrophy
- The Philanthropist
John Gokongwei gives billions to education
- Benevolent Capitalists
The Ayalas’ and Lopezes’ investments in CSR can still grow.
- Spreading Family Values the Aboitiz Way
Will clean technology offset the emissions of their power plants which use dirty fuel?
- High Stakes
How corporations deal with crises defines them as socially responsible citizens
- Q & A: Terry Farris
- Commentary: Jose P. Leviste Jr.
The two great forces of human nature, Bill Gates recently said, are self-interest and caring for others.
When these two seeming opposites blend, the results can be far reaching as we’re seeing today in the programs of various global foundations and corporations to improve the lives of the poor, providing them access to health care and education.
Gates, when he spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, called it “creative capitalism,” a system where market incentives drive corporations to do more to ease inequities.
Others call this “corporate citizenship” but it is generally known as “corporate social responsibility” or csr.
In the Philippines, the practice of csr is relatively young. The concept is still married to philanthropy, but csr is beyond feel-good giving. It is strategic, embedded in the corporation’s principles and mission, and is very much compatible with making profits. As it is often said, a company has to make good so that it is able to do good.
This special edition, supported by a grant from the British Embassy, takes an in-depth look at various issues corporations face as they fashion their own good-citizen programs to address social problems. In doing this, editorial judgment has been completely left to us.
Lala Rimando, our business editor, provided a lot of ideas for this issue. The csr bug bit her after she did a short-term course in the UK on the subject—and it has since become one of her key interests.
She’s gotten noticed for this. Ethical Corporation, a UK-based magazine, named Lala one of the world’s 15 ethical leaders last year, which included Bill Clinton and international corporate figures.
Our researcher, Purple Romero, brought her enthusiasm and energy to this project.
This special issue is timely, as national consciousness on csr is growing. It also comes after the big speech of Bill Gates in Davos where he called for a “new approach” to capitalism and after The Economist’s thoughtful and provocative special report on csr in January.
Bringing this magazine to you—full of good news—has been a joy.
Marites Dañguilan-Vitug
Editor in Chief
Copies are available at the Newsbreak office at Unit 202, S & F Condominium, 137-B Panay Avenue, Quezon City. For inquiries, call Cecille or Arnold at (+632) 920-2695.
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