A Tick for Irresponsibility

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The 2005 Corporate Responsibility Index, published by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, ranks British American Tobacco (BAT) as amongst the six worst performers out of the twenty-seven companies included. The index is based on corporate self-assessments reviewed by Ernst & Young accountants. The index table features a bold tick of approval for BAT, which the key explains means it scored "less than 75%," the lowest category. In a letter to the editor, University of Sydney public health professor Simon Chapman asked, "Why so coy in giving the actual score?" After calculating that BAT Australia is responsible for 8,550 avoidable deaths, Chapman scored the company at zero. He also requested "that those organising the CRI index don't debase the corporate responsibility movement in future by allowing tobacco companies to enter."