CSR Disaster for BP

Guest Blogger: Amy Lewis is currently completing her Bachelor of Management, with a major in Marketing and minor in Corporate Social Responsibility from University of Lethbridge. Amy has a diverse range communication experience, including marketing, media relations and, event planning. Amy enjoys exploring the variety of options that Marketing and Public Relations presents. 

You don’t have to look far these days to find a story on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This ecological disaster is on the forefront of everyone’s minds and makes for an easy target for criticism. As someone with a background in pr and who is in the infancy stages of learning about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the role it plays within an organization I can’t help but follow the developments in the Gulf and how BP responds.

BP is not only receiving bad publicity but its CSR program and its effectiveness is also under scrutiny – and at this point it doesn’t seem like BP is going to catch a break anytime soon. 

Since the explosion that killed 11 people and triggered the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP's stock price has lost about 15 per cent and their reputation is… well in direr need of repair.

Catastrophe cannot even begin to describe the events that have taken place. The colossal oil spill threatens numerous tourist beaches, wildlife sanctuaries and fishing grounds across four states in the United States, and has forced the White House to question drilling activities, this list of things affected goes on but you get the picture.

BP has spent up to US $125 million annually on its corporate social responsibility campaign to enhance its CSR image in its transition from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum since 2000. That is a lot of money and yet it still couldn’t prepare BP for what was to come. I realize that there was a million to one chance of something like this occurring and I guess they were banking on the odds. But with that kind of money going into a CSR plan you would assume BP would have been better prepared.

It’s not like this was BP’s first CSR set back.  They have had three other headline breaking incidents:

·      An explosion at a Texas City refinery in March 2005 killed 15 workers

·      Price fixing in the propane gas market in 2007

·      Corrosion in the Alaskan pipeline which caused a leak and shut down production in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in August 2006

You think with a track record like that they would be a little better prepared and would have covered every possible outcome regardless of the odds? Especially since they’ve been investing so heavily in CSR and trying to rebrand themselves as a company who conscious of their environmental footprint.

At a conference for the British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants, the Acacia Group presented on the topic of Corporate Social Responsibility and embedding the triple bottom line into an organization. As a result of that presentation, a number of thought provoking conversations emerged as people shared what they think about in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility. A common thread seemed to focus on the need for truthfulness and integrity of behavior aligning with stated values.

And personally I think they are right, in order for CSR to be effective it needs to authentic, and not a trend or a superficial exercise.

How do you think BP can save face? Or could have been better prepared? Do you think CSR is integral to an organization or merely a trend?