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Article

14 May 2009

Author:
Economist

A stress test for good intentions

As firms grapple with a brutal economic downturn, they are taking a long, hard look at the resources they devote to everything from supporting charities to making their activities carbon-neutral. That is hardly surprising: cutting back on CSR, or “sustainability” as it is sometimes known, would seem to be a quick and relatively painless way to save money…Yet so far the recession has not produced a wholesale retreat from corporate do-gooding…the preliminary results of the CSR stress-test are encouraging. Many firms really do seem to have found ways of making the world better while making money at the same time. [refers to Gap, Citigroup, Accenture, American Electric Power, Mars, Cadbury, Intel, Ikea, General Electric]