The U.S. Department of Justice announced new Departmental guidelines today that repeal restrictions to attorney-client privilege between corporations and their employees embroiled in federal cases. These new guidelines will

Bad news came to McKesson Corp. yesterday in the form of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris. Judge Saris certified a number of 2005 suits by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund as class action, and allowed them to

Thanks to a settlement announced last Thursday, 3M Company will have to change the labels of their tape products and pony up nearly $700,000 for allegedly misrepresenting the physical dimensions of their tape by six percent. 3M was accused of mislabeling its products by Fresno, California’s Division of Measure Standards, which brought suit against [...]

Tipping is an activity so fervently argued and debated in the United States that entire books have been published on tipping etiquette. Those who have worked for tips argue for it, those that haven’t argue against it, and both sides tend to leave the debate unsettled and more angry than when they started. [...]

Air France today announced a pledge to spend $3 billion annually (until 2020) to cut carbon emissions and noise levels for its aircraft. The company is also hoping to cut fuel consumption by 15 to 20 percent within five years. You can see a bunch of other numbers over

Stop the presses! Al Gore, the Sierra Club, and environmentalists everywhere are going to need to find a new hobby because global warming has just been stopped. Limousine Eighteen, the international “ground transportation company,” has purchased one hybrid SUV for their fleet of ground vehicles. This was revealed to the world in the [...]

Target became the most recent retail company in the United States to announce it would end the use of polyvinyl chloride (more commonly known as PVC) in some of the products it sells, most notably children’s paraphernalia like eating utensils and lunch boxes. By 2008, the company wants to eliminate PVC from changing [...]

A new study released today by Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) revealed that, despite recent high profile abuses, U.S. companies still lag behind their European counterparts when it comes to doing business ethically. However, businesses have significantly improved corporate social responsibility (CSR) across the globe today than 25 years ago, the study says.
As report [...]

Ethisphere Magazine’s Executive Editor Alex Brigham and Editor-in-Chief Stephen Martin will host a complimentary webcast on October 24, 2007, covering every step in the decision process of the 2007 Ethisphere’s ‘World’s Most Ethical Companies’ rankings. The 2-hour symposium will take place at 10 a.m. PST and discuss what was involved in deciding who qualified as [...]

In hopes of setting the standard in its industry, banking powerhouse Barclays recently began a new trend in corporate responsibility. This will include screening £1.5 billion in supplier expenditures.
The company introduced a “corporate responsibility supplier questionnaire” last year with a goal of ensuring that Barclays “engages with the right suppliers and that they have [...]

Fisher-Price has announced a recall of nearly one million Chinese-made toys over concerns of lead-based paint.
The worldwide recall affects 967,000 Nickelodeon and Sesame Street toys, including such popular items the Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the problem was [...]

Home Depot confirmed yesterday that it terminated four purchasing managers nearly two weeks ago for allegedly taking over $1 million in kickbacks from suppliers.
Reportedly, the three lower-level managers were taking large bribes from flooring vendors out of Asia in return for featuring these vendors’ products in Home Depot stores.
Home Depot is cooperating with law [...]

With great fanfare yesterday, Xerox Corporation unveiled a first-of-its-kind paper for digital printing that uses half as many trees as traditional paper, while lowering the cost to mail printed material.
At the core of the development are Xerox’s technical achievements, which have increased the amount of a tree that can be used (doubling the yield per [...]

Disney has announced a plan to become the first Hollywood studio to eliminate cigarette smoking in its movies. The announcement was made via a letter written on Disney letterhead to U.S. Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who serves as chairman of the House subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet. Read the letter [...]

Cadbury Schweppes has announced a plan to cut its net “absolute” carbon emissions. In doing so, it is promoting itself as the first UK food manufacturer to commit to using “absolute” measures in fighting climate change.
By 2020, the confectionery company intends to slash half of its net absolute carbon emissions, with at least [...]

Wal-Mart is reporting that it is ahead of its self-imposed of environmental goals for the company to achieve in an effort to respond to mounting criticism against the world’s largest retailer, which included reducing waste, using more renewable energy and stocking more green products.
One division in particular, Wal-Mart’s transportation department, has reported extensive improvements [...]

A recent United Nations meeting on responsible business called attention to a company’s ethical performance as an important consideration for investors deciding which companies to back.
Citing findings from a recent survey by Goldman Sachs, Ling asserted that companies with strong ethical standards outperform the market. For example, companies on an ethical list compiled by [...]

According to media reports, the Coca-Cola Co. has filed a criminal complaint against executives of French food and drink maker Danone, as well as its PR firm Euro RSCG. In this complaint, the company accuses them of orchestrating a smear campaign against Coke’s Dasani water brand in the Argentinian market – a violation of [...]

Chief executives of 153 corporations from all over the globe pledged their commitment to actively combat climate change and called on governments to do the same in a statement issued at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit this past week.
The statement, “Caring for Climate: The Business Leadership Platform,” was signed by executives that committed their [...]

Ethisphere and its “World’s Most Ethical” rankings were recently featured in the world’s leading business publication, the Wall Street Journal. Columnist Phred Dvorak called attention to Ethisphere and its partial founder, Corpedia, as providing viable measures of a company’s governance standards and practices.
The article went on to highlight the importance of corporate governance to a [...]

McDonald’s, in one of its latest announcements centering around more eco-friendly practices, announced last week that it will start converting its cooking oil into biodiesel. The intention is to run all of its 155 UK delivery trucks on biodiesel made entirely from cooking oil collected from its restaurants by the end of this year.
The [...]

According to a recent

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and subsequent media reports, New York-based Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. has agreed to pay $37 million and plead guilty to systematically dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of sludge and waste oil into the ocean from 2001 to 2006.
The company also admitted that it deliberately falsified the Oil [...]

BAE Systems, the British defense company has decided to blacklist a fifth of the world’s countries as part of moves to help guarantee ethical conduct and to comply with anticorruption laws. This comes on the heels of investigations by the US DOJ over allegations that it paid huge bribes to win business in Saudi [...]

The Kellogg Company announced today that they will rule out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium. Additionally, Kellogg intends to stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the same [...]