Giving Compass' Take:

• TriplePundit takes a look at Hasbro and Mattel, examining how they stack up when it comes to corporate responsibility: Hasbro has done a better job integrating CR into its public image.

• This article ties stock price to effective CR, showing that Hasbro has been more successful on both fronts over the years. Will this spur other major companies to examine their own practices?

• Here's how to plug the experience gap for corporate responsibility.

Hasbro traces the birth of its Corporate Responsibility record to the establishment of the Hasbro Charitable Trust in 1983, charged with “improving the lives of children and their families around the world.”

By 1993 the company realized that handing off CR duties to an independent foundation has its limits. That year the company adopted supply chain standards under the banner of “Hasbro Global Ethics Principles,” following up with the Hasbro Environmental Principles in 1994.

In 2002 Hasbro earned charter member status in the Climate Leaders initiative launched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Since then, the majority of its CR highlights have focused on the environment.

Mattel is also an early CR adopter. The company established a charity in 1978 and, like Hasbro, soon realized that integrating CR into its corporate culture was a more effective strategy. Mattel drew up its own Global Manufacturing Principles in 1997 and issued its first CR report in 2004.

The main difference between the two companies’ approaches is Hasbro’s more assertive pursuit of environmental and supply chain improvement. That contrast came into sharp focus in 2007, when Mattel drew a storm of negative press — and $2.3 million in civil penalties — over hundreds of thousands of toys contaminated with lead paint, originating from its overseas factories. By 2011, Mattel recovered with a more robust oversight program, but just a few years later it stumbled into an ongoing dispute with the organization China Labor Watch over conditions at its factories.

Meanwhile, Hasbro has been leveraging its relationship with the EPA to garner a regular stream of favorable publicity over its environmental actions.

Read the full article about how Hasbro and Mattel match up on CR by Tina Casey at TriplePundit.