We examine actions taken by the board following damage to their environmental, social and governance (ESG) reputation and whether these actions lead to subsequent improvements in firm and ESG performance. Based on a sample of US firms between 2008 and 2018, we find that firms can take a reactive approach and dismiss the CEO, or a more proactive approach and change the CEOs compensation structure to be more closely aligned with shareholders interests. We find that both strategies are effective in responding to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI), as evidenced by increased future firm and ESG performance. We also find that firms are more likely to switch to a Big 4 auditor following CSI, but that this has no impact on subsequent performance. Our results are robust to using alternative reputation risk measures and hold after addressing endogeneity concerns.