Corporate Social Responsibility
"Each company can identify the particular set of societal problems that it is best equipped to help resolve and from which it can gain the greatest competitive benefit"
-Michael Porter & Mark Kramer, Strategy & Society; The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility, Harvard Business Review, December 2006
"Companies that find their way to the sweet spot where sustainability and profitability meet are in a much stronger position for the long haul"
-Andrew W. Savitz, The Triple Bottom Line; How Today's Best Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social & Environmental Success, p. 104; Jossey-Bass, 2006
The Progressive Business Leaders Network ("PBLN") is a very modest part of a much broader movement of business leaders which is often described by what they seek, namely greater "Corporate Social Responsibility." The "CSR" movement is global and - now in its fourth decade - continuing to grow quarterly with new organizations, scholarship and websites being created through-out the world.
The PBLN occupies a unique space within the CSR community due to the fact that the PBLN's educational mission includes both a focus on how business leaders can advance socially and environmentally responsible growth within their own companies (the traditional focus of CSR efforts) as well as a focus on how business leaders can contribute to public policy which advances socially and environmentally responsible economic growth. This second, unique, aspect of the PBLN's educational mission effectively overcomes a persistent and often legitimate criticism of CSR initiatives. Namely, that CSR organizations and efforts ignore public policy at their peril and, indeed, can be a distraction from efforts to develop, pass and implement public policy which creates broad-based and enduring rules to encourage socially and environmentally responsible economic growth.
PBLN Members believe that CSR initiatives can and should help inspire and build on sound, sustainable, public policy which advances socially and environmentally responsible economic growth. And the PBLN exists, in part, to educate Members about how to most effectively engage in the development, passage and implementation of public policy in a way that leverages their expertise, talent and commitment to socially and environmentally responsible growth.
Below hyper-links are provided to a sample of: (A) leading university affiliated CSR institutes; (B) leading CSR groups; and, (C) corporate backed organization which are engaged in efforts designed to support public policies which advance socially and environmentally responsible economic growth. The third group is of particular interest. Because although the PBLN is unique in its focus on educating CEOs and top officers about best practices in contributing to progressive public policy, a growing number of business groups (often not involving CEOs and top officers) have begun to seek ways to systematical contribute to the development of socially and environmentally responsible public policy. The PBLN does not endorse or support any of the scholarship or positions taken by the entirely independent organizations listed below.
Leading University Affiliated CSR Institutes:
Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
Kennedy School of Government - Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative
Leading CSR Organizations:
Business for Social Responsibility
Ceres (Boston based, environmentally focused)
Corporation 2020 (Boston based, focused on corporate legal structure)
CSR Wire ("The News Wire for Corporate Social Responsibility")
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Corporate Engagement in Progressive Public Policy:
Corporate Voices of Working Families
Initiative for Global Development
National Coalition for Health Care
US Climate Action Partnership
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