How Will BP's Corporate Responsibility Ranking Be Affected by Oil Spill Crisis?

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A University at Buffalo expert on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is available to comment on how the BP oil spill disaster will affect the company's CSR ranking.

In recent years, BP may have slipped a few notches in rankings of the most responsible corporations says UB's Trina Hamilton, who studies corporate responsibility and corporate advertising campaigns. But, she notes, it has traditionally been ranked as one of the world's most responsible corporations.

"A lot of the socially responsible investors I've spoken with over the years have used BP as an example of a company that is quite open to dialogue, certainly more so than some other oil companies," she says.

Obviously, the current disaster and its impact on the environment and the worker fatalities that resulted have the potential to change that positive view.

"The safety issue is a big counteracting force against that view," she says, noting that the Gulf disaster comes just a few years after the 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas that also resulted in fatalities.

Hamilton's full commentary is available on UB's "NewsTips" website at http://newstips.buffalo.edu.

Members of the media are invited to regularly check this new website, where a listing of faculty available to discuss news topics and trends is updated periodically.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.