About BEN
Our mission is to help transform the role of corporations in society by building the capacity of our members in their corporate campaign work, by providing education, facilitating collaboration, and increasing recognition of their campaign successes with the funding community and the public.

Does Being Ethical Pay? [05.15.08]
For corporations, social responsibility has become a big business. Companies spend billions of dollars doing good works -- everything from boosting diversity in their ranks to developing eco-friendly technology -- and then trumpeting those efforts ... [Read More]
Lawsuit Challenges EPA on Four Deadly Pesticides [05.12.08]
San Francisco, CA – A coalition of farmworker advocates and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop the continued use of four deadly organophosphate pesticides. These pesticides were derived ... [Read More]
Hundreds of EPA Scientists Report Political Interference Over Last Five Years: UCS calls for strengthened protections for federal scientists [05.12.08]
WASHINGTON (April 23, 2008) — An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency released today found that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists reported that they experienced political interference in their work over the last five years. [Read More]
Fish Story [05.09.08]
After a series of safety scares about imported seafood in 2006 and 2007, U.S. consumers are recognizing that more than 80 percent, about 10.7 billion pounds of the seafood they eat, comes from outside the United States. Much of it is imported from ... [Read More]
Time to draw a line in the oil sands [05.07.08]
Ontario is on the cusp of helping oil-sands emissions explode. Shell Canada wants permits to be granted by the end of this year for a new refinery in Sarnia to process oil from its oil-sands mines in Alberta for use in gas tanks across the GTA. [Read More]
Protect Menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico [05.07.08]
Menhaden are a small, oily fish that play an extremely important role in the health of the Gulf of Mexico. Menhaden spend their short lives swimming in large schools filtering algae out of the water and converting it into their highly nutritious ... [Read More]
Southeastern Swamplands and Paper Packaging [05.05.08]
[PDF]A report on the world-class biological diversity of the region threatened by big paper companies and their corporate customers [Read More]
VICTORY!Oakland Research Matters in Historic South African Water Rights Decision [05.05.08]
Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., is celebrating a landmark in water policy. He received news of today’s groundbreaking decision of the South African High Court in Johannesburg that not only awarded water rights to ... [Read More]
US: Court Orders Tyson to Suspend Ads For Antibiotic-Free Chicken [05.05.08]
Poultry giant Tyson Foods has 14 days to dismantle a national multimillion dollar ad campaign centered on the claim that its chickens are raised without antibiotics, a federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday. [Read More]
In Britain, Corporate Manslaughter Act: firms face huge fines for deaths. [05.01.08]
Prosecutions of companies found responsible for deaths – from rail crashes to accidents at work – are expected to rise significantly under laws that took effect earlier this year. [Read More]
A Town Torn Apart by Nestlé [04.29.08]
Tucked into the foothills of Mount Shasta, the Northern California town of McCloud has no stoplights and one grocery store. A former logger's El Dorado, McCloud fell on hard times in the 1980s when it started running out of trees to cut down. But ... [Read More]
Massive union crowd celebrates at port [04.29.08]
After pounding the pavement for three days, John Anthony Glasby was happy to finally reach the Port of Los Angeles, where he has labored as a longshore worker for the past decade. [Read More]
Confined Animal Feeding Operations Cost Taxpayers Billions, New Report Finds [04.27.08]
The U.S. livestock industry—a large and vital part of agriculture in this country—has been undergoing a drastic change over the past several decades. Huge CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) have become the predominant method of raising ... [Read More]
Turkey's Government Plans Sweeping Water Privatisation in Run-up to World Water Forum in Istanbul [04.27.08]
In March 2009 the Turkish government will host the fifth World Water Forum against a backdrop of what is probably the most sweeping water privatisation programme in the world. As well as privatizing water services, the government plans to sell of ... [Read More]
The True Cost of Shrimp [04.23.08]
In the $13 billion seafood processing industry, workers pay the price for affordability. This report, the second in our Degradation of Work series, uncovers pervasive worker and human rights violations such as low-wage sweatshop conditions, use of ... [Read More]
Shopping bag choices moving beyond just paper or plastic [04.23.08]
Macy's put solar panels on some store roofs, is working to cut energy use, recycling more and generally trying to "green up." But the department store still wants shoppers to use bags. Some bag, any bag. [Read More]
How to End Child Labor on West African Cocoa Farms [04.22.08]
Corporate Watchdog Host Bill Baue interviews Verite Senior Policy Advisor Mil Niepold on Verite’s involvement in the work of the International Cocoa Verification Board (ICVB) [Read More]
Canada Takes Steps to Ban Most Plastic Baby Bottles [04.19.08]
The Canadian government moved Friday to ban polycarbonate infant bottles, the most popular variety on the market, after it officially declared one of their chemical ingredients toxic. [Read More]
The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see. [04.12.08]
On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television (ARTE – French-German cultural tv channel) by French journalist and film [Read More]
Transforming the role of corporations - corporate campaigners, activists, you! [04.11.08]
We have been asked to have BEN activists submit audio commentary pieces once a month for broadcast on Pacifica stations and podcast on CSR-Wire. [Read More]
Patagonia Is First to Track Environmental and Social Impact of Its Products [04.10.08]
Patagonia is the first major apparel manufacturer to track and expose the social and environmental impact of specific garments through The Footprint Chronicles, an interactive website that reveals to consumers the good and the bad involved in ... [Read More]
The Pro-Junk Mail Lobby: Fighting to Sustain the Unsustainable? [04.10.08]
Whether out of environmental concern or sheer annoyance, legislated efforts to reduce junk mail are on the rise, but companies that have vested interests in its continuance have started organizing to save it--in a big way. Of course, they don't call ... [Read More]
Beyond Propaganda: Oil giant BP greenwashes Alberta tar sands [04.10.08]
In 1997, after British Petroleum publicly acknowledged the harmful effects of global warming, it quickly became known as the oil company with environmental virtue. [Read More]
Another sound investment from Wal-Mart [04.10.08]
Everyone who sees the video is shocked: Wal-Mart managers dressed in drag, parading around official Wal-Mart corporate meetings. Bloggers have been weighing in on the never-before-seen footage, and while many note how offensive Wal-Mart’s mockery is ... [Read More]
In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials [04.10.08]
In 2005, federal authorities concluded that a Monsanto consultant had visited the home of an Indonesian official and, with the approval of a senior company executive, handed over an envelope stuffed with hundred-dollar bills. The money was meant as ... [Read More]


  2008 BEN Conference: October 12th thru 16th, Oakland CA


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