HSBC has become the latest multinational to sign up to the Global Sullivan Principles, which promote corporate social responsibility worldwide.
HSBC’s head of group corporate relations, Ivor Godfrey-Davies, said the bank had signed up last month because it felt the principles were aligned closely with its own statement of business conduct.
‘We won’t need a 180 degree change of direction to comply with the principles, but the bigger you are as a company and the more countries you work in, then the more it helps to have a worldwide standard to adhere to,’ he said.
Godfrey-Davies added that HSBC felt association with the Sullivan Principles would make it easier for the bank to publicise the work it is already doing on CSR issues .
The principles, which now have 59 signatories, were originally developed in 1977 by Leon Sullivan, the first African-American to serve on a corporate board in the US, but were relaunched globally last year (EP8, 1999).