The article in the url below indicates two worrying trends that have surfaced in recent months at BP:
“The head of BP's alternative energy division is to retire at the end of the month as the company sharply scales back its rate of investment in the business.”
In spite of the fact that Vivienne Cox (the executive who heads BP’s alternative energy division) will be replaced by her deputy, who is also a woman, campaigners complain that the recent departure of senior female executives at both BP and Shell represent a:
“… "female brain drain" at BP and Shell [that] "threatens to deter women from entering the oil and gas sector".”
In addition, the move builds on suspicion that the alternative fuels division at BP is not as high a priority as it had been under Lord Browne (BP’s previous CEO):
“In 2005, it set out a plan to invest $8bn in alternatives by 2015, and so far has been running ahead of schedule. But the rate of investment, which was rising fast in 2007-08, is now being scaled back again. Capital spending on alternatives was $1.4bn last year and is expected to be just $500m-$1bn this year. BP has also been cutting costs, especially in its solar business.”
Ever since the 2005 explosion at BP’s oil refinery in Texas that killed 15 people and injured 170, the firm has struggled to regain its standing in relation to CSR. The downgrading of its alternative energy division that the article outlines suggests the firm is falling further behind:
“BP has been criticised by environmentalists for failing to live up to the promise of its "beyond petroleum" slogan, introduced in 2000 under Lord Browne, the previous chief executive, and retained by Mr Hayward.”
Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
BP's alternative energy chief to go
By Ed Crooks, Energy Editor
363 words
9 June 2009
London Ed1
