Editorial Comment: Acting together for the common good
February 01, 1999
Rarely do companies work publicly together as an industry grouping.
Rarely do companies work publicly together as an industry grouping. The natural fear of appearing to collude means much lobbying, for example, is conducted through industry associations. In corporate social responsibility, failure to work more together is not just a pity, it’s a hinderence.
On the critical issues of interest to communities and society as a whole, an individual company can rarely have much impact alone. Being the first to act risks attracting undue attention. Sometimes one or two `rotten apples’ can harm the reputations of everyone else, unless concerted action is taken.
Indeed, the closer individual community programmes get to focusing on the narrow needs of a particular company, the more important it is, paradoxically, to think about the impact of the whole industry. That’s what the beverage alcohol industry did in 1997, when 11 companies agreed the Dublin Principles governing their ethical cooperation with governments, scientific researchers and public health experts.
So it is good to see the oil and gas industry starting to communicate collectively. As a start, the report is good. More challenging for them, and more informative, would be to list not just aggregate discharge and pollution rates but comparative performance of each company in benchmark tables.
In parallel with developing corporate citizenship as a tool for competitive advantage, let’s also work together where it makes sense. After all, serving the common good is the very purpose of much of what we do.
COMMENTS