We haven't reached the end of the road for corporate responsibility, but it's my sense that we are nearing the outer reaches of its evolutionary arc. Moving forward, CR will most likely become a baseline requirement in every company's license to operate. A listing in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index or inclusion in the portfolio of a socially responsible mutual fund will be more about doing less harm than acting for the greater good. And that brings us to a crossroad...

...many companies will continue down the same path, making do-good claims that are little more than marketing pap. They will add CR coordinators who lack real clout. They will treat their CR departments as orphanages, filled with "responsibility" ventures for which their operating units feel little or no responsibility. And they will issue glossy reports declaring that they are stellar corporate citizens, while omitting the real costs of their impacts on society and the environment.

At the same time, a growing breed of good companies has heard President Obama's call to a "new era of responsibility." Fueled by an emerging generation of business leaders, these companies are committed to merging economic growth with social justice. They view the financial crisis and the climate crisis as once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to unleash principled behavior for the greater good. For them, values and principles are sources of innovation-opportunities to create products and services that deliver a Return on Purpose as well as a Return on Investment.

...Here's a question that every business leader should ask, but too few do: "What does the world need most that we are uniquely able to provide?" That question animates everything we do at Seventh Generation. It's a question that forces us to explore how we can develop the new thinking needed to respond to the enormous challenges (and boundless opportunities) that confront the planet.

What is this site and partnership all about?
We are working with Justmeans to promote how the growing breed of good companies can become a voice to helping shifting business as we now know it. As always we want you to review our 2008 Corporate Consciousness Report with the eyes of helping us improve. To quote Hamlet "be cruel only to be kind" - let's us know what you think. We also believe you'all represent a number of great companies out there doing "good work" that is moving the bar on what CSR/sustainability can become. Through this site, we want to crowdsource an online book documenting the innovative CSR/sustainability work you all are doing. The purpose of the book is to become a guide for companies at the Crossroads who can choose the road where there are opportunities to create products and services that deliver a Return on Purpose as well as a Return on Investment.

All comments and status updates on this site are linked with our profile and the main newsfeed on Justmeans.com. This will allow your voices to be heard by the largest audience of people interested in good work on the planet, Justmeans.com!