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February 20, 2012
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The world needs heroes. Our companies need bold vision and bold action. CROA needs you.

 

About CROA

CROA members transform ideas into action, advancing corporate responsibility (CR), the profession, and their careers.

As the largest independent CR community, CROA supports the concept that to excel, organizations need to embrace multiple responsibility disciplines including  sustainability, governance, social responsibility, and philanthropy.

CROA welcomes corporate practitioners, providers of products and services, academics, governments, and non-profits as equal participants. Read more

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WHAT'S NEW?

CROA, ASQ & ISM Launch Survey on Value Chain Sustainability  
Click Here to Participate

Do you ever wonder about the best way to achieve the sustainability goals you have for your value chain? Which concrete actions really work (and are worth investing time or money in), and which don’t?  Our research project is designed to provide insight in a way they hasn't been done before – ever. And if you help us, we’ll share that insight with you. .

Addressing the sustainability of the whole value chain, we are looking at concrete questions others haven’t, linking them to overall success at meeting your sustainability goals. Help us and get information you can’t get anywhere else and help us improve the state of the art in sustainable value chain.

We hope you’ll be a part of this important research. Simply click click here to get started.

Join CROA Delegation to Planet Under Pressure: Get the Scientific Community to Solve Your Business Challenges!  
March 26-29, London

The problem with most science is that it's directed at scientists.  After years of frustration with lack of action on the part of national and multi-national governments, Planet Under Pressure has asked the CROA to assemble a delegation of business leaders to go to London at the end of March to challenge the scientific community assembled to come up with scientifically-backed approaches that individual companies and organizations can take to solving some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges.  Foster a unique multi-sector, cross-discipline dialogue leading to Rio+20 and towards a sustainable and resilient planet.  
 
Be a part of the CROA delegation at the World Café session entitled “How Science & Business Can Create a More Sustainable World Together,” Tuesday  March 27 at 2pm.The session will also focus on the influence of science and technology on businesses like the stock market. A good knowledge of market trends is very essential to find the best brokers for smooth and profitable trading.  They will in turn send a group to the COMMIT!Forum to share ways that they can help. 

Click here to request more information on taking part in the delegation or click here to learn more.

 

Live Audiocast: Findings of New CROA Report on the State of the CR Profession  
March 30, 2-3:15pm ET

The CR profession is stuck in a chicken-and-egg conundrum: before employers establish a CR career path, CR needs a defined curriculum; before educational institutions invest in a defined curriculum, they need to see a clear demand for CR professionals. 

Fulfilling CR’s promise as a field and profession requires deliberate action to build a consensus within the field itself and about the field in society. Join BCLC’s Stephen Jordan and the CROA's Richard Crespin as they uncover new findings from recent research into the state of the CR profession. Click here to view the executive summary. 

Participate virtually via the live streaming audiocast and Twitter chat or in person if you are in the DC area, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the Lee Anderson Veterans' Center.  Click here for more information, registration will be available soon! 
  

Join the 2012 COMMIT!Campaign; Make a Commitment to Change the World!  
See How to Participate

Join this webinar hosted by NAEM to learn about the methodology behind CR Magazine's 12-year-old list, known as the world’s top corporate responsibility ranking and recognized by PR Week as one of America's top three most-important business rankings. The methodology, with 324 data points in seven categories, uses publicly available data on Russell 1000 companies. The information is collected by IW Financial with rankings determined by CR Magazine using an open and transparent methodology reviewed annually by a committee of CR practitioners, academics, and other advisers.

Click here to learn more.
 

COMMIT!Forum Announces Addition of Dov Seidman, Author of HOW to Agenda

Named one of the “Top 60 Global Thinkers of the Last Decade” by The Economic Times and “the hottest advisor on the corporate virtue circuit” by Fortune Magazine, CEO, author and thought leader Dov Seidman has built a career, and pioneered an industry, around the idea that the most principled businesses are the most profitable and sustainable. 
 
He joins Phillip K. Howard, founder of The Common Good, Duncan Neiderauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, and James Quigley, CEO Emeritus of Deloitte and author of As One, in headlining the program. 
 
Click here to register!

Lawyer & Author Philip Howard to Keynote 2012 COMMIT!Forum
Click here for the Press Release

Lawyer Philip K. Howard, author of Life Without Lawyers and founding chairman of the non-profit Common Good, will keynote the 2012 COMMIT!Forum, taking place October 2-3 in New York City.

Howard will articulate his mission of rebuilding reliable legal structures that will permit Americans to use their common sense based on the thesis that making choices for the common good is impossible if everyone is tied up in red tape. Reclaiming responsibility requires a basic shift—where law sets boundaries for free choice instead of dictating choices for the lowest common denominator.
 
He is just one of the many influential speakers that will headline the 2012 event.  Click here for more.
 

CR Magazine, NYSE Euronext & CROA Reveal Results of 2nd Annual CR Best Practices Survey  
Executive Summary of Findings

The findings of this second annual survey of CR professionals, performed earlier this year, provide the CR community with important insights on the state of corporate citizenship, how this has changed year-over-year, and some of the field's best practices. Click here for an executive summary of the 2011 survey results or CROA members click here to log in and download the complete report.

The 2011 survey results, with responses from 300 companies from across 20 industries, build upon the inaugural 2010 survey that set a baseline as the broadest sampling of how companies plan, structure, and budget for corporate responsibility programs (click here for the 2010 survey results).  
 
Click here for the full press release.
 


CROA to Release a NEW Professional Development Report  
Executive Summary Available!

CROA recently launched a multi-faceted research and development program on the CR profession.  This report summarizes the findings of a specific phase of that program; formulating a snapshot of where the CR field stands today and providing insights on how to mature it.  CROA Executive Director Richard Crespin presented the preliminary findings from this report at the BCLC 2011 Citizen Awards finalists lunch on November 17th.

 
Click here for an overview of the report results.  CROA members will be notified once the full report is available online.  This report builds off of the Structuring & Staffing CR Guidebook that the CROA Professional Development Committee released earlier this year, available here.
 

CROA Submits Member Input on Integrated Reporting Initiative 

CROA gathered input from across the membership on the IIRC's discussion paper "Towards Integrated Reporting -- Communicating Value in the 21st Century," providing the perspective of how the proposed changes would impact the CR Practitioner. 

Click here to view the CROA response. 

 


Outcomes of 2nd Annual Government & Industry Roundtable

Administrator Dan Gordon, head of federal procurement policy for the White House, challenged participants from across government, industry, non-profit/NGOs, and academia at the July 20th roundtable on how best to account for corporate responsibility in government purchasing in a way that does not disadvantage small businesses or cause disruption to the procurement process.

Click here to join the ResponsibilityWorks LinkedIn group and participate in this important conversation on improving transparency and sustainability in the government supply chain.  Join CROA to become a part of the ResponsibilityWorks working group consolidating this input into recommendations.

Click here to learn more about ResponsibilityWorks.


Hear From Our Members

Hear From Our Members
 
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RESOURCES...

CROA Empowers Individuals at All Levels to Take Action & Improve CR
Join today!

CROA has expanded to engage individuals at every level of an organization to enhance the role of businesses in society, transitioning from an organization-focused membership to a professional society with individual memberships and organizational underwriters.  

This change helps focus the work of the association on the individual corporate responsibility practitioner and allows for strengthening of the profession, in recognition of the increasing interest in and proliferation of this role.  CROA will for the first time allow aspiring practitioners to engage as general members, retain its close ties with CR practitioners as practicing members, and continue its multi-stakeholder involvement of corporations, non-profits, government and academic institutions. 

Organization members continue to be essential to the ongoing success of CROA as their support provides access to important services and programs.  For more about Underwriter Options, please click here.

To join CROA now, please click here. 
 



The single largest gathering of leaders improving business and society!

The 2011 COMMIT!Forum was a great success!  Click here to view the media coverage.

Click here to view the 'big ideas' that attendees shared from the show floor!

Make plans now to join us for COMMIT!Forum 2012, October 2-3 in New York City. 
Register today! 
 

Research Alerts

Sign Up now to receive Research Alerts with analysis of the successful practices of these top performers in:

  • Climate Change & Environment
  • Employee Relations & Human Rights
  • Finance & Governance
  • Philanthropy
     


CROA Guidebook
on
Structuring & Staffing CR 

In 2010, CROA sent surveys to every publicly traded company on the NYSE Euronext Exchanges plus CROA members and CR Magazine subscribers  seeking their answers to questions about how they budget, structure, and plan for their CR Programs.  Simultaneously, the CROA’s Professional Development Committee engaged in a structured review of how companies organize the function and the responsibilities they delegate to CR professionals.  This Guidebook brings these two efforts together in a helpful resource.
 

Twitter Chat: Results of COMMIT!Forum Debate on Value of CR
Recap Available!
 

Missed CR Week? View these CR Success Stories Online 

Members of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens and CROA have vitally important stories to tell about how their companies have made real commitments to corporate citizenship, transparency, and accountability.  We are excited to help share these stories with you!  View videos on programs from across the CR spectrum, different industries, around the world.

Cause Integration Profiles Bring Transparency to Companies' Good

CROA and CR Magazine have partnered with Causecast, the premier cause integration platform for nonprofits and brands, on launching the public beta of Cause Integration Profiles to promote and syndicate the listings of socially responsible companies such as CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens list.  These Cause Integration Profiles are open to any company interested in enhancing the visibility of their CSR initiatives, the causes they support and the grants offered by their foundations.
 

EDF Climate Corps Presents the
12 Tips of Energy Efficiency!

The idea of saving on energy can seem like an abstract and daunting concept. Where do you begin? 

Enter EDF Climate Corps.  Every summer, the EDF Climate Corps program trains and places highly-qualified MBA students in leading companies to turn this seemingly overwhelming task into tangible, clear tips everyone can use in the workplace. See the top 12 energy efficiency tips EDF fellows have identified over the past three years.

Call for CROA Committee Members... 

CROA Members have the opportunity to join one of our active committees, let us know if interested!

- Rankings & Ratings Methodology Committee provides input into CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking methodology.

- Research Committee working groups advise on research initiatives such as the Responsible Supply Chain Research Study or CR Best Practices Survey.

- Professional Development Committee is developing the CR practitioner body of knowledge, looking at the knowledge, skills and attributes required and their prevalence, as well as exploring a CR professional code of ethics.

- ResponsibilityWorks Government Roundtable is focused on improviding transparency and responsibility in the government supply chain.

Click here to learn more.
 

   

Best Practices in Sustainability Reporting

Hear how best in class organizations measure impact and performance to accelerate their sustainability strategy. Many organizations today find that financial reporting alone no longer satisfies the needs of investors, governments, supply-chain partners, and other stakeholders for information about overall organizational performance. This requires companies to become increasingly transparent with their sustainability business practices and accountable to performance targets. 

Join Brown Flynn and sustainability professionals from IT services company Atos International and SAP on best practices in sustainability reporting, how to efficiently gather sustainability data & disclose performance, and more.

Click here to register for the archived webinar.

CR Best Practices
Results of the 2nd Annual CR Magazine/ NYSE Euronext Survey 

We surveyed every publicly traded company on the NYSE Euronext indexes as well as the CROA and CR Magazine databases...the results are in! Learn how: CR leaders are structuring, staffing and funding their programs; CEOs and boards are engaging in CR; and how CR is impacting profitability and competitive advantage.

Hear the findings from this FREE webinar now!

Building the CR Profession

Addresses key questions:

How can companies organize CR for success? 
What kinds of leaders hold CR positions?
What knowledge, skills, and attributes should those leaders possess?

  View FREE webinar online now! 
  

Listen now to this FREE webinar!

 

 

CR Magazine Announces Responsible CEO of the Year Award Winners 

CR Magazine Announces 10 Best Corporate Citizens Rankings by Industry

CR Magazine Releases Best Corporate Citizens in Government Contracting List

100 Best Corporate Citizens List Announced - CROA in partnership with CR Magazine announced its 12th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List in March. The list in known as the world’s top corporate responsibility ranking based on publicly-available information and recognized by PR Week as one of America’s top three most-important business rankings. Read more

Second Annual Corporate Responsibility Black List Released - CR Magazine’s list highlights the lack of transparency within Russell 1000 companies. Read more

ResponsibilityWorks Government Roundtable Featured on Federal News Radio The DorobekINSIDER program interview with CROA Executive Director, RIchard Crespin, focuses on the impetus behind this initiative.  We have measured the effectiveness of corporate responsibility in industry for over ten years, with research showing that companies really can do well by doing good. CROA members now want to put those data, practices, and insights to work for government. Listen to the interview

Collaboration:  Can you work together? President Obama has made open government a pillar of his administration, calling for increased transparency, enhanced collaboration, and improved citizen engagement. The CROA spoke on a panel exploring this theme at the Excellence in Government conference.

CROA convenes European Steering Committee - The CROA seeks European corporate leaders to serve as Steering Committee Members to help share European CR practices with our growing global association. Read more 

Making the CR Business Case to C-Suite - Speakers from Washington Gas and Bank of America discussed how to demonstrate to the CEO and CFO that CR & Sustainability make good business sense. Read more

NYSE Euronext and CROA Unveil Corporate Responsibility Best Practices - NYSE Euronext and CROA  developed the first comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Best Practices study. Drawing on survey data gathered from across publicly traded companies, this landmark study provides a baseline for measuring and sharing practices. Read more 

 

Read more

CROA Blog

LinkedIn links

Join the CROA LinkedIn Group and start talking with your peers and colleagues about the top issues of the day.

Join the ResponsibilityWorks LinkedIn SubGroup if you are interested in the work CROA is doing in the area of increased transparency and responsibility in the government supply chain.

Join the NEW CROA Mentor Program LinkedIn Group and become a mentor or protege.

Read more

Twitter Updates

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