The Smoke and Mirrors Game of Global CSR Reporting

Issues and Fixes

This book examines the reporting systems for corporate social responsibility. It finds an array of flaws that prevent any clear and objective evaluation of corporate behavior, impeding the possibilities for activist investors to make ethical choices.

This book examines corporate social responsibility reporting systems. Corporate social responsibility or CSR is the idea that corporations should act ethically, with a sense of obligation to society beyond financial return. We focus on the main ways that corporations report CSR at the global level. We find that the main reporting systems, whether administered through the UN through The Global Compact, or through the various financial reporting systems such as Bloomberg, are fundamentally flawed. In fact, it would be very hard for an ethical investor or consumer to find adequate and accurate information. The book closes with suggestions on how to reform the CSR information system so that corporations can be held accountable and incentivized to do the right thing.