Responsible 100: Corporate Responsibility Management Tool
Responsible 100 is a corporate responsibility management tool that enables any business or organization to improve its responsibility performance - for its own benefit and for the benefit of society. It is also a community seeking to foment a ‘race to the top’ in business - where doing good translates to greater profitability.
Responsible 100 began in 2012 although the concept dates back to 2002 and the realization that - to be truly credible - businesses couldn’t expect to ‘cherry pick’ the responsibility issues that they wished to be held accountable on while ignoring the rest. From charitable giving to animal testing to modern slavery to diversity in the workplace, executive pay, lobbying government, and paying tax - all issues which impact business and wider society matter. The Responsible 100 corporate responsibility management tool has
Any business can use the Responsible 100 corporate responsibility management tool to assess their performance through instant assessments, full assessments, and roundtables. Organizations are assessed on up to 57 separate responsibility issues across 8 broad categories, i.e. Community, Environment, Ethical Choices, Finance & Governance, Human Rights, Marketplace Ethics, Technology, and Workforce. On each issue, performance is measured as POOR, OKAY, GOOD or EXCELLENT. Results are converted into a score out of 100 for businesses keen to keen to benchmark performance across a range of issues.
Responsible 100 businesses must commit to continuous improvement. But this is not to say that all issues affecting a business need to be addressed all at once. It’s recognized that changing attitudes within corporates and industry is a long-term game that will require tenacity, pragmatism, and a lot of optimism - and help! The aim is not to criticize corporates but to work alongside businesses to develop sustainable business practices.
Roughly once a month, Responsible 100 quietly but effectively brings convenes its network by bringing together micro businesses, SMEs, and some of the world’s largest corporations with leading campaign groups, NGOs, trade bodies, government, and regulators in roundtable peer review meetings.
These 'critical friend' sessions are a great way for businesses and their most important stakeholders to explore how effectively performance is being progressed, sharing challenges, learning, and practical know-how, in a safe space. They bring together a diverse group of individuals for frank, constructive dialogue.
One participating critical friend, the Head of Engagement and Responsible Business at one of the UK's leading brands, describes the roundtables “not about talking through the theory - but learning about what works in today's context, and readying organizations for future scenarios, working with people who are passionate about making a positive difference."
The roundtables provide the opportunity for the definitions of POOR, OKAY, GOOD and EXCELLENT within the scorecards to be reviewed. Businesses and other organizations submit written accounts of the policies and practices they pursue on the issue under examination. With this, they can be appraised by their critical friends and assessed against the scorecard. It is a unique process that enables organizations to work out how they currently perform, how they compare to their peers, what better and best practices look like, and if and how to adopt them.
To date, Responsible 100 has convened 56 roundtable peer review meetings. It has brought together 727 critical friends from 561 different organizations including the world's biggest brands and corporations, and foremost NGOs and campaign groups.
Responsible 100 is delivered by Profit Through Ethics Ltd, the London-based social business that devised and developed the concept and platform.
