Corporate Responsibility Mondays

Last week I introduced a new little running thread. Basically trying to highlight some corporations that we may or may not take for granted. I know for me, for the longest time, I never really thought about where my money was going or what it was supporting. Recently, I’ve been attempting to at least become a bit more informed about the practices and ethics of places that I give my money. Also on the advice of many of you I’ve decided to feature a positive company each week too. But since it’s tough enough to find adequate and accurate information on 1 company let alone 2, my new/good friend Ariah Fine is going to join me each week in blogging about a corporation that is practicing healthy business ethics.

Realizing that half of what I say is crap and the other half hypocritical at best . . . and realizing that I probably need to reiterate for the 50th time that I’m not a moralist, legalist, or absolutist about anything that I think . . . that there would be no better way to convey both of those points than taking a stab at my golden god . . . Apple. Meanwhile Ariah is blogging about some of the better tech companies out there over on his site.

There are 2 main things that I’ll highlight and you can take a look at their full corporate profile here.

1) Apple is a leading contributor to what is now becoming known as “e-waste”. Essentially, when computers are broken or “done with” they are liquidated to countries overseas who then take them and have people (mostly children) strip them for parts. The computer companies, in this case Apple, are supposed to go through the computer and take out all of the harmful chemicals and toxic waste internally within the computer, before they get sent off to be stripped for parts. Unfortunately this usually does not happen and children end up spending 8 hour shifts breaking computers down, all the while coming in contact with harmful “e-waste”. This is a common practice in the computer industry, but Apple is considered to be one of the more innovative, “green” companies, so there is no reason why they can not take the lead in setting higher environmental standards when it comes to “e-waste”.

2) This is something that most people wouldn’t expect but if we’re honest, it still contributes to a non-sustainable world. It is a practice based on deception and greed. There is a thing in the corporate world called “backdating”. In most innovative companies, it’s hard to hire and keep talented, cutting-edge talent. Giving them “raises” in salary don’t typically do the job of keeping them happy or keeping them committed to the company. So many companies use other incentives such as stock options (which most of the time don’t kick in until after 4 years of employment). The only problem is that the IRS likes to tax anything that is given of value. So many CFO’s have begun the practice of “backdating”. Basically, if a stock share is worth $50 dollars today. They’ll backdate when they gave it to them . . . perhaps when the stock price was as low as $5. On something as small as 5,000 shares that’s a difference in $225,000 that the companies don’t have to pay taxes on. While I would love to stick it to Uncle Sam as much as the next person, what this effectively does is drive down the stock price for those who were there in the beginning and paid $5. It punishes them for their foresight while rewarding the new hot shot. It’s unethical and Apple has multiple complaints and fines levied against them because of this practice of backdating.

Sources: Responsible Shopper, Wired Magazine (March 2007), & Apple’s Wiki

Don’t forget Ariah’s post.

[techtags: Apple, Backdating, E-Waste, Responsible Shopper, Wired Magazine, Corporate Responsibility]