It’s ten years into companies’ efforts to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the returns for business still aren’t good enough.

Are we so busy helping others to build their sustainability (environmental, social and economic) pillars that we're neglecting our own personal ones?

If your board is absent a person with expertise in a certain area -- like finance or law, go find and recruit the right person. If your board needs a bit of training and inspiration, bring in a terrific expert for a lively, illuminating session. In some cases, however, the board can't be fixed by simply adding a board member or two, or featuring a governance seminar.

By Dr Wayne Visser 

Part 13 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

What is the most effective CSR/sustainability strategy – to scare or to inspire? How do you get the balance between sharing the bad news (i.e. the state of the world) and the good news (i.e. the innovative solutions)?

By Dr Wayne Visser

Part 12 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

Telling customers what they can't have will send them elsewhere. Earn their trust and educate them to promote sustainable purchasing.

Most companies envy the passionate loyalty that Apple customers have for their products, the dedication that Southwest Airlines employees demonstrate without understanding that effectively managing their stakeholder relationships is the key to earning these benefits. Employee engagement and customer loyalty are intangible (non-physical) assets that contribute more to the value of a company than the physical 'things' it owns.

By Dr Wayne Visser

Part 11 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

“In spite of there having been a translator to help facilitate conversations, I have never been so keenly alert to my client’s body language and every nuance of expression, as well as my own,” explained Susan E.

By Dr Wayne Visser

Part 10 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

By Dr Wayne Visser

Part 9 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

The Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) 2012 State of the Sector Survey fourth annual survey of nonprofits nationwide was released today, showing responses from 4,607 nonprofits. Nonprofits have been reporting a steady rise in demand for services over the course of the survey’s four years, with 85% reporting an increase in 2011, compared to 67% of nonprofits in 2009. Financially, however, the picture continues to decline.

As a socially conscience business, we believe it is important to promote sustainable practices throughout the healthcare and medical field. We were inspired by this story of four engineering students from ASU who turned a class project into a real world solution for social good by repurposing old and used shipping containers.

How many students does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? Tony Anderson, Morehouse College ’08, can answer that.

Together with college friend Marcus Penny, they founded Retrofit A Million (LRAM) for the purpose of capturing and replacing 1 million incandescent light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs in homes in low-income neighborhoods. So far, 1,000 student volunteers from several universities have screwed in 40,000 bulbs.

By Wayne Visser

Part 8 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

You might learn a great deal in school, but it’s doubtful that you’ll actually develop as a leader by reading a book or taking a course. The military is right about experiential development: People grow and become leaders by making a commitment to a cause, and having personal responsibility and accountability.

Whether or not you filled out your NCAA basketball tournement brackets, you have a chance to fill out an even more important bracket for another competition of talented college students. This bracket features 16 student Commitments to Action that will be presented at the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), which will be held at George Washington University in Washington D.C., March 30-April 1. President Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart will announce the winner on March 31.

By Wayne Visser

Part 6 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.

Recently, I interviewed Ben Thornley of InSight and author of a new study on impact investing, which demonstrates that institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments that invest for social and environmental outcomes are also earning a competitive rate of financial return. Launched a few weeks ago in New York by InSight at Pacific Community Ventures and the Initiative for Responsible Investment

More jobs and cheaper energy. In the lead up to this week’s Super Tuesday primaries, these have been constant refrains from the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. They have also been central messages from President Obama.  No doubt, they will continue to be among the key themes repeated between now and November 6.

It's been four months since the EU launched its 2011 - 2014 strategy for CSR and Tom Dodd, CSR Policy Adviser at the European Commission, was one of the key players in delivering the updated definition and overall document. In a project that would have to manage the expectations of an incredibly varied stakeholder group, I believe Tom and his colleagues have done a sterling job in producing such a concise document in the relatively short time period of only 10 months in practical terms. An impressive accomplishment for a process you would expect to be a bureaucratic nightmare.

The concept of 'The Butterfly Effect' explains that even small actions can have far reaching and unintended consequences. This presents a unique problem for businesses operating in a global context because any business working across cultures must face the fact that -- no matter how they conduct their business -- they are going to have some impacts that will cause some stakeholder to question their actions.