Turning up the noise on CSR: activist groups like the Rainforest Action Network have taken to the streets recently to protest corporate policies. At the same time, however, a nascent backlash movement is questioning companies about their "green" initiatives.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Social responsibility

Judging by activity taking place this proxy season, the noise over corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been turned up a few decibels.

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Consider the action taken against Wells Fargo & Co. in late April. Led by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN), a group committed to preserving equatorial rainforests, a sizable group of protesters descended on the banking giant's annual meeting in San Francisco. Protesters toted giant puppets and banners to highlight what it called "Wells Fargo's bad investments in oil and coal companies infamous for environmental destruction and human rights abuses, and bad practices like predatory lending in poor communities."

The protest at Wells Fargo's meeting followed a week of outdoor advertisements and actions. Thousands of posters reading "Wells Fargo: Lootin' and Pollutin' Since 1852" began appearing throughout the Bay Area in the days before the meeting.

But not all of the action is coming from the proverbial left. This spring, environmentally related initiatives at the Goldman Sachs Group and General Electric Co. were publicly challenged by a small but vocal mutual fund, The Free Enterprise Action Fund. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil Corp., a major target of activists in the global warming debate, has acknowledged funding groups whose positions it supports, including one that successfully urged the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Greenpeace's taxexempt status.

The increasingly vocal nature of a few challenges comes as most social responsibility advocates continue to work the time-honored channels, filing ballot resolutions for the annual proxies and then seeking to negotiate privately with companies about those initiatives. Data from the Social Investment Forum, released in late April, found that an estimated 180 social and environmental shareholder resolutions either had already been voted on or were scheduled to be decided at U.S. corporate meetings for the first half of 2006, compared with 169 for the same period of 2005.

"I wouldn't say what the Rainforest Action Network is doing is new--there are groups who have protested actions outside companies for many years," says Meg Voorhes, Director of Social Issues Service at Institutional Shareholder Services. "Sometimes they will also file resolutions, so they will use both avenues."

Conservative actions aren't novel, either, Voorhes notes; anti-abortion groups have frequently filed resolutions asking companies to stop contributing to certain causes or nonprofits. But the "green" backlash is new, she says.

While still quite small, this movement has garnered support from conservative media voices like Forbes and The Wall Street Journal editorial pages. These anti-activist forces maintain that environmental, religious and organized labor advocates have captured something of a monopoly on the public debate over socially responsible...