Black Friday Social Responsibility

H&M At the beginning of 2010, H&M (and another CSR leader, WalMart) were embarrassed by a scandal in which customers found that the companies were destroying spare clothing. H&M immediately promised to end the practice. Besides this dark mark on their record, H&M has a pleasing variety of CSR programs. They have made sustainability changes to the operations, supply chain and products. They work for human rights gains for children in areas of the world that harvest cotton. They also push for access to clean water access, which is great even if I don’t see the connection to their business.

BestBuy BestBuy’s CSR was strong all the way through the recession. Much of their activity is ‘youth’ focused. They award a lot of scholarships, and incorporate students into corporate decisionmaking in a programs called @15, which also helps decide where charitable funds are distributed. They fittingly collect e-waste and try to educate consumer around this issue. They also audit their supply chain and products for various social responsibility objectives- labor, environment, etc. BestBuy also has adopted fitting activities related to promoting renewable energy; after all, if US is having an energy problem, BestBuy is having a business problem.

Target Target is another store that had a rough year; indeed, they are still embroiled in the fallout from donating political funds to a candidate that was openly bigoted towards gay people. However, Target does have two worthwhile CSR programs. First, it donates 5% of its net income to various causes (though, we now know that sometimes includes political donations). But for a mega-earner like Target, it’s a meaningful amount of money. Also, Target supports a range of very cool programs for veterans and soldiers. They fund one that records soldiers reading to their kids on DVD. They make care packages for soldiers in the field. They also fund an organization called Civic Enterprises, which researches vets’ lives after they’ve returned home. Few firms do focus so much on vets, and Target sets itself apart in this way.

These are only three of many, many retail firms with cool CSR programs. Other honorable mentions include Kohls; WalMart; LLBean; HP; Dell; CVS and more. Check out JustMeans’ CSR rankings for a more exhaustive list before you head out.

Original Source: www.justmeans.com/Black-Friday-Social-Responsibility/38567.html