Nine companies to put social side to live net test

Nine companies have signed up to act as guinea pigs in a pioneering project that aims to measure corporate social responsibility live on the internet.

The list of volunteers - including Jaguar Cars, Prudential, Thames Water and J Sainsbury - have joined the campaign, run by Business in the Community, as announced at the BITC annual general meeting on 6 December.

They have pledged to measure and report on their impact on society against a framework laid out in the recent report 'Winning with Integrity', launched by BITC at the CBI Conference in Birmingham (PRWeek, 10 November).

The reporting criteria will cover the areas of workplace, marketplace, community, environment and human rights, and the results will be posted on a dedicated website.

BITC corporate communications manager Matt Larkin said they hoped to encourage more companies to sign up to the scheme, which will go live next year.

Belinda Howell, BITC director of business and the environment, and Mallen Baker, BITC director of impact on society, will head the scheme.

- A new online corporate social responsibility network for SMEs, GoodCorporation.-com, is set to launch next spring. Former KPMG director Leo Martin will run the site, which will be externally verified.