One of the world’s largest publishing companies has signalled its intention to take greater account of its social and environmental performance by setting up a post of community affairs director.
UK-based Reed Elsevier says the creation of the post, filled at the end of February by Marcia Balisciano, is part of a new strategy to look more closely at how the company can improve its corporate responsibility.
The move comes on the heels of a study suggesting that media companies are among the least transparent and accountable organizations in the world. The report, Good news and bad, from the SustainAbility consultancy, says that as a result media groups are ‘likely to come under increasing scrutiny’ of their ethical performance.
One of the main tasks of the Reed Elsevier community affairs director ‘will be to visit our businesses around the world to establish exactly what they’re doing in this field and then to act as a liaison point for community activities’.
Reed said: ‘We are such an enormous and diverse business that the first priority is to draw together all the strands of CSR and find out what everybody is doing in this area.’
Reed Elsevier employs more than 25,000 people and sells more than 65 million magazines a year in 25 countries. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of the UK group Reed International and the Dutch group Elsevier.
Until now it has not shown great interest in corporate social responsibility, and last year was among six firms publicly named by UK environment secretary Michael Meacher as ‘laggards’ on environmental reporting. Three of the six were media companies (EP2, issue 10).
Company secretary Steve Cowden has since been given the job of compiling, for the first time, a two-page section on CSR in Reed Elsevier’s forthcoming annual report.
The company has also turned to Business in the Community for help with improving its ethical performance.
Henderson Global Investors, which has visited Reed to discuss the company’s social performance, said there were ‘signs of progress’ on CSR and evidence that social and environmental issues were now being addressed ‘systematically’.