CSR walks down Wall Street

If one is looking for a sign that investors are getting serious about how companies report their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts, maybe it’s best to let investors’ actions speak for themselves.

As of spring 2010, investors had filed almost 100 climate change-related shareholder resolutions with U.S. and Canadian companies—a 40-percent increase over the total number filed in 2009, according to Investor Network on Climate Risk, whose members’ assets total more than $8 trillion.

Investors filed resolutions with oil and gas companies including ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), asking, among other things, that the companies report on the legal, regulatory and environmental risks of Canadian oil sands operations. Also on the list are Safeway (NYSE: SWY), Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX).

Companies are responding. As of March 2010, almost 30 of those resolutions had been withdrawn because the companies made specific commitments to address environmental risks associated with their business practices. Such commitments range from electronics retailer Best Buy’s (NYSE: BBY) promise to adopt climate change principles to forest products giant Weyerhaeuser’s (NYSE: WY) pledge to report on its impacts on rainforest sustainability and indigenous populations.

In 2009, financial news and data services giant Bloomberg even launched an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data service for its stock service investors. That move was an important signifier that CSR reporting is becoming increasingly important to many Wall Street veterans, according to Brooke Barton, senior manager of corporate accountability at Boston-based Ceres, a network of U.S. investors and public interest and environmental groups aiming to integrate sustainability into capital markets. A new report from the group outlines the many reasons why sustainability performance is fundamental for business success.

While companies spend the bulk of their marketing dollars trying to communicate their sustainability message to consumers, getting the message to investors may be just as crucial to success.