When Principles Pay: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Bottom Line

Continuing on our Earth Day theme, today we’d like to draw your attention to the newest book in the Columbia Business School Publishing imprint , Geoffrey Heal’s When Principles Pay: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Bottom Line. Heal argues that socially responsible behavior, such as reducing your environmental impact, can make a company more profitable.

Here are five ways companies profit from socially responsible behavior other than from the PR value:

1. Wall Street punishes socially irresponsible companies by lowering their stock market value.
2. It reduces a firm’s exposure to costly lawsuits.
3. Employees who know about their company’s good deeds are more productive.
4. A proactive stance can preempt intrusive government legislation.
5. Consumers will often pay more for a product they believe will do some social good.

Find out more in this interview with Geoffrey Heal on the Ideas at Work Web site.

You can also read an excerpt from When Principles Pay.