The greenmailing of corporate Britain

This year’s corporate colour is green. Even Rupert Murdoch has placed a lime tint over the screens at BSkyB, declaring it to be the first carbon-neutral media company.

Anyone with a portfolio of shares is already aware of this year’s fashion. Investors are receiving a colour supplement with their annual reports — a ‘corporate responsibility’ booklet full of uplifting pictures and bold claims. Indeed, many companies are so keen to parade their social awareness that the supplement is bigger than the accounts.

It may look as though hard-nosed businessmen have gone soft, but companies remain as competitive as ever — only now the rivalry is to outdo each other as corporate citizens. As these supplements show, today’s competition is to be greener than thou. ‘Sustainability’ indices allow companies to boast how they rank higher than their rivals. Even the Black Horse bank has turned green. Lloyds TSB’s report states, like an excited teenager, ‘Our corporate responsibility strategy is to help achieve our corporate vision by building a great place for our people to work, a great place for customers to do business and generating great returns for our shareholders.’