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I was riding in the back of a cab some where between Detroit and Troy, Michigan when I knew he had died.  The Maine area code on my iPhone told me even before I heard the voice on the other end that Rush Kidder was no more.

According to the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) 2011 Public Company Governance Survey, when asked to name the top three issues for the board,only 1.5% of corporate directors picked “Corporate Social Responsibility” among the highest priorities for the board in 2011.

A few years ago, Nike paid the price for the bad labor and human rights practices of its suppliers.  Now it's Apple's turn in the penalty box.

Following up on last week’s blog post about how, in the midst of the economic downturn, the best corporate citizens built more successful ways of working with governments and NGOs, we now look at how to help organizations establish them by shining a light on real-world examples and providing a platform for connecting with potential partners.

At the 2011 COMMIT!Forum we highlighted several new models of collaboration. Two of my personal favorites were the work done by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Compass Group to alleviate slave-like working conditions for migrant workers in Florida and that of Western Union and USAID to establish an African Diaspora Marketplace to harness the wealth and entrepreneurialism of this community to jump-start new businesses in Africa itself...

The recession started a renaissance in how companies, NGOs, & governments collaborate. 

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention.  With governments and non-profits facing yawning budget deficits and business facing one of its biggest trust-deficits in history, organizations are coming together in unprecedented ways to tackle some of society's greatest challenges. In fact, a distinct set of collaborative practices used by the “best corporate citizens” and their partners have emerged that others could adopt.

At Green Gov 2011 this morning I facilitated a lively panel that included discussion of what is  sustainability and what is the role of the sustainability profession. Ira Feldman (Greentrack Strategies), Terry Yosie (World Environment Center) and Valerie Patrick (Bayer Corporation) were our panelists and came with a rich set of views and experience.

The discussion of what is sustainability was broad and philosophical using terms like ‘systems thinking’ and ‘form of art’. But many people in the room (myself included) had sustainability jobs, with specific job descriptions and objectives.  So what can we compare that to?

Susan Pullin, CSC Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, writes that

There are many opinions about the real value to a company of corporate responsibility (CR). Aman Singh recently wrote for Forbes about these contrary opinions and posed the question: “Are we fighting over semantics or strategy?” She went on to consider how stakeholders often view CR. Is it perceived as something that is disconnected from markets, profits and capitalism itself? Is it typically misinterpreted as a cost, with some seeing CR as little more than “giving away money and adopting the latest cause of activists”?

As we look at this debate, one point is clear:  if CR is perceived anything but a contributor to top-line growth, then stakeholder opinions will be negative and the value of CR is misunderstood.

In his address to a joint session of Congress last week, President Obama said, “Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country.  We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that’s made things worse.”Indeed, the evidence abounds.

In recent days, the Labor Department reported that the economy created virtually no net jobs in August—its poorest monthly showing in a year. Unemployment remained stuck at 9.1 percent. The president’s own budget office, in its midyear review, forecast that the jobless rate will persist at 9 percent into next year as well. And just today, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the national poverty rate had hit 15.1 percent last year while median household income declined. The 46 million Americans living below the poverty line last year represented the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

In his address tonight to a Joint Session of Congress, President Obama will lay out his plans for kick-starting employment and growth. America needs a plan for good-paying jobs combined with sustained and sustainable growth. Here’s our jobs and growth agenda at the COMMIT!Forum Sept 26-27 in NYC:

How can corporate responsibility help you sell more stuff, save more money, and grow your business? Come find out at the COMMIT!Forum on Sept 26-27 in NYC when you hear:

- How UPS uses sustainability reporting to sell more & save more. 

- How HIP Investor, TIAA-CREF, & KKR deliver shareholder returns.

- How Corporate Voices for Working Families builds a more competitive workforce.