7.14.2010

Gem of the day

More 'awkward moments' from the trainwreck which is BP's glossy CSR legacy. Today we're treated to this whopper of a headline:

"Social Funds and BP: How Embarrassing!"

Obvious issues with that headline aside, we're left to think about the impact on social funds from BP's [previously] solid standing on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Legg Mason Social Awareness Fund, and plenty of others.

So what does the article conclude? "The BP-SRI connection...suggests that any investor in a mutual fund that calls itself socially responsible, sustainable, green, blue or any other color would do well to dig deep beneath the magazine ads and website fluff to understand what the fund is really all about."

Strongly disagree. The BP-SRI connection is not an 'alert' to saavy investors that they should be picking their funds wisely with due research. It's a wake-up call to the entire SRI industry. I guarantee BP is not the only example of funds which are [some unknowingly, some not] investing in oil companies with fundamentally unsustainable core products and services. The SRI industry is successful because of the CSR community--and the CSR community played a key role in getting us here with the BP disaster.

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