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Susan Pullin, CSC Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, writes that

There are many opinions about the real value to a company of corporate responsibility (CR). Aman Singh recently wrote for Forbes about these contrary opinions and posed the question: “Are we fighting over semantics or strategy?” She went on to consider how stakeholders often view CR. Is it perceived as something that is disconnected from markets, profits and capitalism itself? Is it typically misinterpreted as a cost, with some seeing CR as little more than “giving away money and adopting the latest cause of activists”?

As we look at this debate, one point is clear:  if CR is perceived anything but a contributor to top-line growth, then stakeholder opinions will be negative and the value of CR is misunderstood.

For the last two weeks I’ve spent a lot of time in the deep-end of the Corporate Responsibility ratings pool. Last week I participated in a workshop here in Washington, DC organized by SustainAbility to reflect on the findings of their Rate the Raters Report. This week I spoke on a panel (coincidentally with a lot of the same people from the workshop) at the Better Business Bureau of New York on the value of ratings systems.