Soft touch: The gap between business rhetoric and reality is causing problems at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

The 'left-leaning' think tank's latest report, based on a survey of 500 UK company directors, finds that while there's plenty of business chatter about the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), most companies fail to implement effective social or environmental policies.

This hasn't gone down too well at the Institute of Directors (IoD) which commissioned the report.

The IoD disagrees with the IPPR's interpretation of the results so much that it's published its own summary. Unlike the IPPR, it regards the results as another opportunity for yet another CSR good news story.

Ella Joseph, who wrote the IPPR report, told Newsnight's Stephanie Flanders yesterday:

'I was really surprised by the IoD's response. We'd be the first to praise, promote, endorse positive company behaviour and we're absolutely delighted by some of the findings around workforce policy.

'However we do think that where companies say they have a policy but don't actually evaluate whether that policy is effective, we need to change that situation.' [BBC Newsnight].

It sounds as though the IPPR is tired of greenwash: corporate PR designed to pre-empt any broad critique of business practice.

Pushing for 'soft' regulation, it wants CSR company audits standardised and published widely to all interested parties - workers, consumers, the community and shareholders. [Observer].

Meanwhile, the government sticks to the voluntary approach. Business - Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Global Crossing, WorldCom, Tyco, Arthur Andersen, Martha Stewart, Enron - gets to decide its own code of conduct.

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