The Debate Over Doing Good

The Debate Over Doing Good: "The Debate Over Doing Good
Some companies are taking a more strategic tack on social responsibility. Should they?

It's 8:30 a.m. on a Friday in July, and Carol B. Tomé is starting to sweat. The chief financial officer of Home Depot Inc. (HD ) isn't getting ready to face a firing squad of investors or unveil troubled accounting at the home-improvement giant. Instead, she and 200 other Home Depot employees are helping to build a playground replete with swings, slides, and a jungle gym at a local girls' club in a hardscrabble neighborhood of Marietta, Ga. Dressed in a white Home Depot T-shirt, a baseball cap, and blue capri jeans, Tomé tightens bolts, while others dump wood chips, mix concrete, and sink posts. The company, together with nonprofit playground specialist KaBOOM!, plans to build 1,000 more such kiddie parks in the next three years -- and spend $25 million doing it."