Strategic Corporate Initiative

Publication Date: September 2007

Publisher: Corporate Ethics International

Author(s): Marjorie Kelly; Charlie Cray; Chuck Collins; Sarah Anderson; John Cavanagh; Mari Margil; Michael Marx

Research Area: Business; Human rights; Law and ethics

Keywords: communities; rights; corporations; ethics

Type: Report

Abstract:

The mission of the Strategic Corporate Initiative (SCI) project is to design, inspire, and direct a movement to transform the role of corporations in our society. The problem this project is addressing is one that is familiar. Transnational corporations have become too dominant within our society. They exercise too much control over all levels of government, but especially our federal government. They have rapidly exploited sectors of our economy and society that should be preserved for the common good such as education, health, media, water, and forests. They have established free trade as the suit that trumps all others including human rights, labor, communities, and the environment. Unfortunately, efforts to redress this imbalance remain largely fragmented. Reform theorists are often disconnected from activists, who are generally disconnected from each other due to their specific issues.

This project has worked to define a roadmap that represents the convergent thinking of leading theorists and activists so that we might all engage in a better coordinated, long-term effort to redress the underlying causes of the myriad social and environmental problems that NGOs, foundations, and philanthropists attempt to solve - excessive corporate power and lack of accountability to all stakeholders.