(From The Economist)

From PR Web:

Pfizer, Gap and fireman's Fund were among the nine corporations that took home the highly-coveted PR News award for outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility. The winners, saluted at an event held today at the National Press Club, were lauded for both the execution of successful CSR initiatives and for effectively communicating those efforts to various constituencies.

Winners were awarded in eight categories critical to CSR success, from Business Ethics to Philanthropy Communications to Community Relations. Honorable mentions rounded out the awards program, for a total of 29 organizations selected for their social responsible work during the 2005 judging period.

"This year's winners have redefined Corporate Social Responsibility, particularly PR's role in CSR," says Diane Schwartz, vice president and group publisher of PR News. "The teams that executed outstanding CSR initiatives are reaping the benefits in terms of reputation, market share, mind share and global good deeds."

Great news or just a bunch of PR? What do you think. Comment below.

In other CSR news ...

*Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities gives a speech at the The European Market Place on Corporate Social Responsibility.

*Also from the EU, 16 of 120 project proposals received in response to the "Mainstreaming CSR Among SME's" will get co-funding to the tune of €3 million. See the European Business Guide for more information.

*From Inc.com, how social responsibility helped one coffee grower land a deal with Starbucks.

*Proposed CSR legislation in Australia takes a hit. Just how to encourage businesses to follow CSR practices is a tricky issue. I'm always leery of more legislation, but how much carrot and how much stick is appropriate?

*At Ethical Corporation, Phillip H Rudolph on how to engage your company's lawyers on ethics issues as well as how to make CSR work.

*Ghana MP urges mining companies to take more responsibility for the welfare of their workers and communities. A good example to follow might be Pechiney-Alucam's AIDS fighting project in Cameroon, which we pointed to a few days ago.

*At Science and Theology news achieving social responsibility and boosting the bottom line.