The Truth Will Out: The Tide Is Turning

The following post is part of a CSRHub series focusing on 10 trends that are driving corporate transparency and disclosure in the coming year. To follow the discussion of each trend, watch for posts on the CSRHub blog every Wednesday.

By Bahar Gidwani

If you’ve ever watched the tide turn, you know that there is a long period where nothing seems to happen then the water suddenly rushes in. The same thing is happening with sustainability as companies rush to take advantage of a surge of interest from consumers, employees and other stakeholders.

While we founded CSRHub in 2007, one of our founders, Cynthia Figge, has been working as a sustainability advisor since 1996. Back in the 1990s, there were few examples of major companies with sustainability programs. A few pioneers on Wall Street, at firms such as KLD, Calvert, Innovest, EIRIS, Vigeo and IW Financial, were starting to gather data on corporate social performance. But, there were no standards for behavior for reporting it, and companies were reluctant to talk about their “softer side.”

To read more about the growth in sustainability data and standards, visit the CSRHub blog >>