Is CSR dead?
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, corporate responsibility 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…

...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's new this year in our reporting? A Partnership with justmeans.com
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. We believe many of you represent a number of great companies out there doing "good work" that is moving the bar on what CSR/sustainability can become.

Through the justmeans 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.