Operation Total Makeover

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Another Total ethics warrior is Jean-Michel Gires, 46, who is responsible for the company's sustainable development efforts. They include ensuring Total is working with local communities around the world and developing new sources of energy, including wind. Gires is especially proud of a recent $4 billion project in Venezuela that produces and refines extra-heavy crude from the Orinoco basin that a decade ago would have been left in the ground. As part of its efforts to support people living in the area, Total not only built schools, medical facilities and roads but also employed experts to study public health issues there. After discovering that many local diseases were linked to water quality and the lack of sewage treatment, Total put in better safeguards to protect the water supply. The $2 million annual cost is part of an estimated $85 million Total spends on such societal projects annually, according to the company's first CSR report, published earlier this year (on recycled paper, naturally).

Total's biggest critics are watching, but not without skepticism. "It's good they are going through the motions," says Hayman, of Global Witness. "They are moving in the right direction, but nowhere near fast enough." For all his doubts, Hayman was pleasantly surprised earlier this year when Jean-Pierre Labbé dropped by Global Witness's London offices, saying: "I am here to listen." Labbé, 55, a former head of operations in Vietnam, has for the past two years served as Total's vice president for international public affairs — the point person for relations with often-hostile critics. Labbé says his job is to "translate the demands of civil society into a language my colleagues can understand." He also tries to identify relief organizations and other groups working in poor countries who could help smooth relations with local people. One such project is in the Niger delta, where the firm is funding a project by a Brazilian-French nongovernmental organization called Pro-Natura that's trying to help local communities set up democratic decision-making bodies and develop the economy. "They are not doing this to save the planet," says Guy F. Reinaud, Pro-Natura International's president, of Total's motives. "But they've understood that it's in their own interest."

Not everyone is won over. At London-based Henderson Global Investors, which manages about $160 billion in assets, fund managers think Total needs to do more. A September 2001 accident at a Total fertilizer plant in Toulouse that killed 30 people raised questions about the company's safety record, says Henderson's Nick Robins, and its continuing presence in Burma puts it off limits for inclusion in some of Henderson's socially responsible funds. "We're looking for consistent year-on-year improvements," Robins says. "We recognize Total is trying to change, but we need another two to three years" to ensure that it is.

Even internally, Total is still struggling with the implications of its new mission. Back in Milan, Dairon spends 45 minutes talking about Burma; a continuing black mark on the company's international reputation. Total insists it has done nothing wrong, but the taint of working with an especially despotic regime and allegations about forced labor raise difficult questions for the firm. "Can a company invest in a country that is considered not democratic?" Dairon asks. "Should it substitute for international organizations in judging a country in the first place?"

He opens up the floor for comments. "We need to flip the image in the media and publicize the more positive aspects of what we're doing there," says one Italian manager. Dairon concurs. "I agree one hundred percent," he says. "But we are a company of engineers. We are very rational. Perhaps we work too rationally." Changing culture, it seems, is easier said than done.