Toyota Backpedals on Burma
If the Prius left you with a warm and fuzzy feeling for Toyota, you’re not alone. Noting that Toyota “has been a leader in both developing and promoting hybrid power-trains, the new industry standard, and is well advanced in overall R&D programs for future vehicle types,” the corporate responsibility research firm Innovest chose the company as the sole automotive representative in its top 100 most sustainable global companies in August 2007. We’re in agreement that Toyota deserves accolades for implementing sustainable business strategies that have led to the successful launch of hybrid fuel technology. But – and you sensed this …
Uncovering Slavery in Steel
How far up a supply chain should a company be held accountable? In Carajas in Brazil’s eastern Amazon region, work is scarce and poverty and lawlessness are widespread. Opportunistic hacienda owners lure the desperate and unemployed to distant charcoal camps with promises of work, wages and shelter. Once at the camp, the owners levy illegal charges on the workers for transportation, equipment, lodging and food. Mario Osava, reporting for Inter Press Service last July described the debt as “pretext to keep laborers on the camp under threat and often under armed guard.” Deep in debt, workers succumb to involuntary servitude, …
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