[amazon-product align=”right”]1877762067[/amazon-product]Today, Dada Maheshvarananda meditates on the alternative economic model of Progressive Utilization Theory, or PROUT. Joe Romm of Climate Progress analyzes the climate resolve of the Obama Administration. Lisa Woll of the Social Investment Forumproposes an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility to the Obama Administration. And auto and environment expert Jim Motavalli comments on the significance of President Obama’s executive order directing the EPA to reconsider its refusal to grant California a waiver allowing it to regulate greenhouse gases from autos.
The Social Investment Forum (SIF) submitted a letter to President Obama listing a series of policy proposals, from proxy access allowing shareholders to nominate board candidates to “say on pay” giving investors a vote on executive compensation. SIF also urges the Obama Administration to establish an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. This idea dates back to the early 2000s, propounded first by Susan Aaronson at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, and supported by a Government Accountability Office report finding major lack of coordination on federal CSR initiatives. SIF CEO Lisa Woll explains the rationale behind the recommendations, and how they will promote advancement toward sustainability.
Each January for the past several years, Bill has surveyed the top Corporate Social Responsibility news stories of the past year for CSRwire.com, where he is a contributing writer. Here’s this year’s edition:
A “green” recovery from economic and environmental meltdowns; the advent of Shareholder Activism 2.0 with binding resolutions at TARP banks; CSR adopts Web 2.0 strategies for sustainability reporting; is Wal-Mart really green?; and much more…
The economic meltdown of 2008 mirrors the simultaneous environmental meltdown fueled by the climate calamity – both share common roots, and many in the Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) community believe they share a common salvation.Read the show transcript
Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy gives his take on the opportunities — and dangers — of the transition to the Obama Administration. Read the show transcript
The ExxonMobil annual shareholder meeting this year carried high expectations from shareholder activists. Members of the Rockefeller family, descending from the founder of the Standard Oil monopoly that splintered into Exxon and Mobil, attended the meeting to support four different shareholder resolutions on corporate governance and climate change. Of these four, the resolution supported by most Rockefellers asked the company to split the CEO and Board Chair positions. Today’s CWR guest, Bob Monks, has filed this resolution at ExxonMobil since the early 2000s. His struggle to hold ExxonMobil accountable exemplifies the broader struggle to hold corporations accountable described in his new book, Corpocracy. Monks is co-founder of Institutional Shareholder Services, The Corporate Library, Lens Governance Advisors, and a former Labor Department official in the Reagan Administration.
Web extra: Bob Monks chats with CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon about the US presidential candidates’ ability to take on corpocracy. Listen
CWR ViewPoint: read (Thanks to our partner CSRwire for posting text of CWR commentaries.)
Longtime shareholder activist Steve Viederman presented this statement at the ExxonMobil Annual Meeting in May 2008 to introduce resolution 19 asking Exxon to adopt a renewable energy policy. He filed the resolution along with other individuals, families, foundations and religious orders, joined by 20 institutional investors worth over $740 billion in combined assets, including Exxon Mobil stock valued at more than $8.6 billion.
Rich Ferlauto, who handles shareholder activism for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) pension funds, discusses shareholder democracy and corporate governance. Currently, shareholders cannot nominate candidates for corporate boards of directors, and those directors can be elected on a single vote. A federal appeals court recently ruled in favor of AFSCME against the American International Group in allowing the union access to the corporate ballot to nominate directors. Ferlauto also discusses the move to establish majority vote director elections that is gaining steam. He criticizes the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to support shareholder rights.
In 2006, Corporate Watchdog Radio will focus on corporate social and environmental responsibility as it plays out in the investment marketplace. We begin the year with a wideranging review of how that theme played out in 2005. CWR reviews the mainstreaming of the socially responsible investment movement, with developments at the United Nations, Goldman Sachs, DuPont, Walmart, SRI backlash movement, body burdens of toxic chemicals, toxics in products at DuPont and other companies, climate risk, corporate governance, state pension funds and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Each January for the past several years, Bill has surveyed the top Corporate Social Responsibility news stories of the past year for 
Today, Sea Change Radio talks with Nick Robins of 
