New year, new design

Since we've now moved into our 4th year of writing this blog, we thought it was time for a little freshen up. So along with a new year, we've got a new design. We hope you like the new-look Crane and Matten blog, but please send us any comments you have about it, especially if you have trouble reading the text, accessing the links, seeing the pictures, or any other troubles. In the meantime, we'll still be doing a few more nips and tucks, and perhaps a little botox here and there, to make sure everything looks good. It ain't easy getting old, you know.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crane and Matten have left the building

This blog is no longer being updated. We had seven great years writing for the Crane and Matten blog but due to a variety of factors we decided it was time to move on. The site will continue to be hosted here though so that our backfile of articles is freely available. We would like to thank all our readers for taking the time to read and engage with us on so many critical corporate responsibility issues over the years. We hope that you continue to do so. You can follow our latest thinking on Twitter at @ethicscrane and @dirkmatten. We also continue to post on the following blogs: Andrew Crane is now Professor of Business and Society in the School of Management at the University of Bath, UK where he writes on the Bath Business and Society blog . Dirk Matten is still the Hewlett Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility in the Schulich School of Business at York University, Canada and is an occasional guest blogger for the Business of Society blog of Copenhagen Business School.
Read more

Ethical sunscreen: getting it covered?

Image
The end of July. School is out, the beach is beckoning, and North America is just emerging from a massive heatwave. OK, so its grey and chilly in much of Northern Europe right now, but for many of us, summer is truly here. And like all self-respecting sunworshippers, we're all too aware that this means it is time for sunscreen. The question is, though, what is the responsible choice among the myriad brands in the market? And what counts for responsible when it comes to sunscreen anyway? Over at the Ethical Consumer website , help is at hand. The UK-based magazine publishers and all-round ethical shopping wonks produce ethical buying guides for just about everything. Their buyers guide for sunscreen is available free and includes probably more information than anyone could possible want about how the various brands stack up against a wide array of social and environmental issues. Top of the list of things to avoid are potentially harmful chemical ingredients, including various para...
Read more

What does American Apparel’s bankruptcy mean for responsible business?

Image
This week’s announcement of American Apparel’s bankruptcy and subsequent filing for Chapter 11 protection could spell the end of a unique experiment in responsible business . Although it has been a fixture along with global retailers such as Zara, Gap, and H&M on high streets across the world for the past decade or so, American Apparel is unlike virtually all of its counterparts in the apparel industry when it comes to responsible business. While other global clothing companies outsource their production to suppliers in emerging economies, American Apparel has steadfastly stuck to a made-in-America philosophy, promising that its clothes are ‘sweatshop free’. According to the company, the average American Apparel stitcher earns more than $2,000 month, along with a range of employee benefits including subsidized health insurance, an on-site medical clinic, subsidized public transport, and English classes. By contrast, according to the ILO , garment workers in key Asian export countri...
Read more