Corporate Social Responsibility is an elusive concept—it requires corporations to determine what their values are, educate their workforce about them, and then carry them out.  The idea of doing this with a group of 20, much less businesses that employ millions, is absolutely mind-boggling, and so it makes sense that many industries would perpetually flub the task.  Here are five that are especially bad at holding it together:

5. Defense Contractors

Defense contractors are the bane of any capitalist society with a military, but in the U.S. they’ve managed to completely tie their activities to “supporting the troops” which would actually be a great CSR tactic if it were even a smidgen of truth.  With their reps allowed to run rampant inside a military procurement system staffed by underpaid government employees, and the mindset that their deployed personnel are somehow above the laws of the land, names like Blackwater, General Dynamics, and KBR have become synonymous with how to get a bad reputation.

4. Fossil Fuel Energy Companies

It’s one thing to continue to drill for oil or excavate coal even though it’s common knowledge that both of those activities will have to cease if the planet is to avoid boiling over; there are very practical considerations to not stopping all activity tomorrow, like the survival of the western world.  But it’s something else entirely to do that while undertaking massive ad campaigns showing flowers and butterflies emerging from smokestacks. 

3. Automotive Production

This shot may only apply to the American auto industry, as the Asian and European makers seem to have gotten on to this whole “efficiency” bit a long time ago.  When you know that fuel prices are not going to decline—ever—and still refuse to even consider entering into production small cars with good gas mileage in lieu of 12-mpg behemoths, you deserve to flirt with bankruptcy.  Why is this an issue of CSR and not merely bad business decisions?  Because they’re helping to trigger a global economic slowdown by suppressing the U.S. economy, that’s why. 

2. Lobbyists and Political Advocates

This is a group of individuals that will advocate to your elected officials that the Myanmar Junta is not all that bad, or that the China/Tibet situation is a big misunderstanding and that the Dali Lama needs to stand down if they get enough money.  Enough said. 

1. Insurance Firms

We’ll leave the American health insurance companies out of this discussion as low-hanging fruit; think about the callous way in which carriers of homeowner’s insurance classify certain damage in storms as coming from wind, rain, and floods; they only have to cover two of those three.  This seems like logical business practice, except for the lack of suspension in emergency situations; if an entire community is leveled, but there’s dispute over a flood or a storm doing the bulk of the damage, it’s far too familiar to see an insurance adjustor simply cite policy and leave the citizens to fend for themselves than it is to see him justify the expense. 

By Pinke.biz writer Ben Ray. Check out his blog at What's Required.

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