Hans Carl von Carlowitz coins the term ‘sustainability’ – Nachhaltigkeit – in response to Saxony’s disappearing forests.
Robert Owen takes over New Lanark Mill in Scotland, working to improve employee welfare and instituting an eight-hour day. Owen later travels to America to begin a utopian experiment in the community of New Harmony.
Great Britain’s Cotton Mills and Factories Act starts to regulate industrial production.
Great Britain abolishes slavery and begins pressuring other nations to do the same.
The US Supreme Court holds that the Fourteenth Amendment applies to corporations, guaranteeing constitutional protections to corporations. The ruling establishes the concept of “corporate personhood” in law, and paves the way for corporate political spending to be protected under freedom of speech.
George Cadbury builds Bourneville and the Lever Brothers found Port Sunlight, to house workers for their respective factories.
Wealthy business owners, such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, embark on expansive philanthropic efforts.
Following the horrors of the First World War, the League of Nations is founded at the Paris Peace Conference. The International Labour Organisation adopts the first six International Labour Conventions, including hours of work, , maternity protection, minimum age, unemployment and night work for women and the young.
Five refinery workers die “violently insane” from heavy lead toxicity at a Standard Oil refinery. News surfaces that seven other workers had died previously at GM and DuPont plants. New York and other cities and states ban leaded gasoline.
The Wall Street Crash marks the beginning of the Great Depression, which leaves millions unemployed and destitute, and ignites debate over corporations’ responsibilities to their shareholders and other stakeholders.
The term “greenhouse effect” is coined by Glen Thomas Trewartha, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin.
Johnson & Johnson chairman Robert Wood Johnson writes the J&J Credo, a statement of business principles that outlines the company’s responsibilities to its stakeholders.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
The UK Parliament passes the Clean Air Act, in response to London’s Great Smog.
Dwight D. Eisenhower warns of the corrupting influence of the “military-industrial complex”, in his farewell address to the American nation.
The Silent Spring by Rachel Carson links agricultural pesticides to the damage of animal species and human health.
The Equal Pay Act is signed into law in the US, prohibiting wage discrimination between men and women.
War on Want publishes The Baby Killer, raising awareness of Nestlé’s sales practices in the developing world.
The ‘Five Percent Club’ is founded in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Companies including Dayton Corporation (later Target) and General Mills commit a proportion of their profits for philanthropy.
Publication of Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach by R. Edward Freeman, considered the point at which Corporate Social Responsibility became part of mainstream management theory.
The Antarctic ozone hole is discovered by British and American scientists. Two years later, 24 countries agree the Montreal Protocol on phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals.
Barclays Bank withdraws from South Africa, following student-led anti-Apartheid boycotts. Protesters in the USA, Netherlands and Britain also target Royal Dutch Shell.
Community Affairs Briefing is launched, a regular publication on corporate responsibility news. It later becomes the Corporate Citizenship Briefing and is the longest-running regular publication on responsible and sustainable business issues.
Sweden becomes the first nation to enact a carbon tax.
172 governments participate in the Rio Earth Summit, resulting in an agreement on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
LBG, the global standard for measuring corporate community investment, is founded by a group of six London-based companies. LBG continues to be managed by businesses for businesses, co-ordinated by Corporate Citizenship, leading and shaping the way businesses deliver impact, with a membership of 150+ international companies.
Kyoto Protocol adopted by the US and 121 other nations, but not ratified by US Congress. American industry predicts “disaster” if CO2 reductions are enforced, but environmentalists are dissatisfied with the weak goals of the treaty.
46 US states settle lawsuits against the tobacco industry, agreeing the four largest US tobacco companies would be exempt from private liability over harm caused by tobacco if they agreed to amend their marketing practices and pay compensation to the states for medical costs.
Nike’s chairman and CEO, Philip H. Knight, admits “the Nike product has become synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse”. Nike takes an active role in the foundation of the Fair Labor Association, and publishes its first corporate responsibility report in 2001.
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) are launched, becoming the first mainstream sustainable investment indices.
The United Nations Global Compact is launched by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in front of 44 business CEOs and 20 heads of civil society organisations.
The first full version of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines is released.
The SMART Company is founded in London by Amanda Jordan and acquired by Chime Communications the following year.
American energy firm Enron is revealed to have lied about profits and concealed its debts, leading to investor withdrawal and the company’s consequent bankruptcy, as well as the dissolution of accounting firm Arthur Andersen.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange becomes the world’s first exchange to require listed companies to report on sustainability.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is launched. Its aim is to increase transparency over payments and revenues in the extractive sector.
Companies respond to the first Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) survey, which mobilises investors to demand the disclosure of data on corporate carbon emissions.
California imposes a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, the first state in the US to do so. The following year, the EU agrees to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
“Creating Shared Value” is introduced as a business concept by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer, in an article in Harvard Business Review.
The Corporate Citizenship Company becomes part of the Chime family, merging with the SMART Company to become Corporate Citizenship.
The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are established by UN Special Representative John Ruggie, setting a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of human rights abuse linked to business activity.
Research by Corporate Citizenship identifies tax as an emerging corporate responsibility issue.
An investigation reveals that Starbucks paid just £8.6 million in corporation tax in the UK over 14 years, reporting losses to avoid such tax, while telling investors it was profitable.
Corporate Citizenship opens its third international office, in Singapore.
The Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapses, killing over 1,100 people and leading to widespread criticism of international firms for the perceived lack of action to improve working conditions.
The EU issues a Directive on non-financial reporting, requiring disclosure on environmental, social and governance matters. EU member states must transpose the Directive into law by the end of 2016.
UK mining company Glencore becomes the final FTSE 100 Company to appoint a woman director to its board.
Singapore enacts the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, permitting the government to criminalise companies for environmental pollution.
India’s “CSR law” requires companies to give 2% of their profits to social causes.
The UK Modern Slavery Act is passed. It includes a clause requiring all large companies to publish an annual statement on the measures they are taking to address the risk of modern slavery in their supply chains.
The Paris Climate Agreement sets a global goal of limiting global warming to below 2°C
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are launched, emphasising for the first time the role of business in achieving the global development agenda.
The Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s fight over an oil pipeline in North Dakota becomes a US national movement.
Corporate Citizenship opens an office in Melbourne, Australia – its sixth globally.
Larry Fink, the CEO of asset management firm BlackRock, writes to company CEOs, stressing the real and quantifiable impacts of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. He calls on them to lay out to shareholders a strategic framework for long-term value creation. Meanwhile, a survey of global managed assets finds that 26% now integrate ESG aspects.
President Trump announces the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. The nineteen other members of the G20 re-affirm their commitment.
Corporate Citizenship celebrates its 20th anniversary.
The UK introduces mandatory reporting on the gender pay gap, applying to all companies with more than 250 employees in the UK.
David Logan, Co-founding Director, publishes Corporate Citizenship: The Role of Companies as Citizens of the Modern World, with views on how and why companies must step up as good citizens and use their power and influence to help humanity face the challenges of the future.
Jan 2021 London Benchmarking Group (LBG), our industry recognised societal impact framework and network, rebranded to Business for Societal Impact (B4SI), to better reflect its role in meeting the changing nature of business involvement in society and the increasing global footprint of the network.
Corporate Citizenship has been acquired by SLR, a global leader in environmental and advisory solutions.
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