Who says businesses can’t directly improve bottom-line results from being good corporate citizens? Well, there are some people. But an increasing number of reports are showing that there is a tangible link between sustainable business and financial return, including IBM’s “Sustainable Growth through Corporate Social Responsibility” and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “Doing good: Business and the sustainability challenge.”

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s most recent report, “Corporate citizenship: Profiting from a sustainable business,” further supports the notion of doing well by doing good with the following findings:

• Corporate citizenship can help improve the bottom line. 74% of survey respondents said corporate citizenship can help increase profits at their company. When asked for their firm’s primary motivation for corporate citizenship, the top three answers all related to the bottom line: revenue growth (16%), increasing profit (16%) and cost savings (13%).
• Investments in corporate citizenship are significant. 19% of respondents who knew the answer said their company invests more than US$1m in corporate citizenship initiatives annually. Despite the economic malaise, five years from now 49% of all respondents said they will spend more.
• For most, corporate citizenship remains a fringe activity. Only 28% of respondents characterized their strategy as proactive. Yet successful companies implemented major changes in the way they do business, and long before government legislation required them to. They developed new technologies that eliminate problems such as the production of toxic waste, eliminating the need to install expensive controls mandated by the government.
• Without a strong commitment from top executives, corporate citizenship will not be taken seriously at a firm. 92% of respondents said a board member or C-level executive is in charge of corporate citizenship at their company. Digging deeper, 34% said the board is setting strategy, while 37% claimed that it is the CEO, president or managing director who is doing so. Many corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility executives were at the senior vice-president, vice-president or director levels.
• Having a well-designed corporate citizenship program can be a competitive advantage. Survey respondents who said effective corporate citizenship can help to improve the bottom line were also more likely to say their strategy is “very important to their business (33%),” compared with other survey respondents (8%).

In addition to robust results and analysis, the report provides best practices for actually profiting from corporate citizenship, including (note: the strategies and interview quotes were taken directly from the report, which can be accessed in full here):

• Make the business case: This step is critical, especially during an economic downturn. “Business leaders who have not quantified the financial benefits will clearly do less, whereas those who have clearly defined the benefits will do more, regardless of the broader economic conditions,” according to Dr. Paul Tebo, president of the Tebo Group, who was among those interviewed for the report.
• Be proactive: “Recognize that you will make mistakes, you won’t always be successful,” interviewee Paul Murray, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for Herman Miller, said. “But unless you try, you won’t be successful at all.” Professor Stuart Hart of Cornell University agreed, saying, “As little as 5% of your investment capital could be enough to create a serious play in the sustainability area.”
• Identify challenges: “Ask yourself, What is your Achilles heel? What is it that you really need to focus your efforts on to improve your own performance? For energy-intensive companies, this might be the environmental footprint of your operations; for others with an Asian supply chain, human rights issues,” said Dawn Rittenhouse, Director of Sustainable Development for DuPont. “Pick five or six bold steps that are pertinent to your business,” Peter White, Director of Global Sustainability for Procter & Gamble, recommended.
• Set public goals: “It’s OK to have philosophy and principles, but when you set goals, you’re serious.Particularly public ones, because once you go public on your goals, that gives you an extra incentive to meet them,” Dr Tebo said. At the same time, be honest: “Don’t advertise how well you are doing when you haven’t really got far down the track,” Herman Miller CEO Brian Walker said.
• Measure progress: Respondents who reported that their company uses metrics, such as triple-bottom line reporting or ISO 14001, to measure the effectiveness of corporate citizenship are far more positive about their initiatives than the other respondents in the survey.
• Tie corporate citizenship to core objectives: “It should become part of the
  core values of the company, not an add-on run by a corporate-relations group,” said P&G’s Peter White. “That’s what gives employees and stakeholders—including investors—confidence in the company.”
• Articulate results: “To make sustainability work, somebody’s got to articulate the financial gain that comes from the results,” Dr Tebo said.