31-07-2009 Taiwanese Environmental Groups: Acer's stakeholder engagement methods questioned

Excerpt from the CSR China website:

An interesting press release just arrived in my inbox from Good Electronics from a group of 13 environmental groups in Taiwan who have issued a statement explaining why they chosen not to attend a recent CSR communicative meeting held by Acer.  The full release which should be up on the Good Electronics website shortly is interesting for anyone interested in stakeholder engagement and the methodology for conducting successful engagement.  The environmental groups are clearly not happy with the methods used by Acer as they state that: "Unfortunately Acer has not been able to provide data on the agenda of this meeting, nor have they responded to environmental groups' questions raised in last year's pre-meeting protest.... Furthermore, we disagree with Acer's decision to send representatives of lower level management to participate in the meeting. Concerned environmental groups do not think that such arrangements can fulfill the purpose of having significant constructive communication" It does matter how you engage, who you use as a company representative to engage with and how you follow up on that engagement is the quick summary of what other companies can take from this.