When it comes to engaging with host communities, even the best intentions can go awry without a robust process. Anglo American's award winning Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox (SEAT) provides a structured way to work with their neighbours to improve their well-being. The attached pdf document (which can be downloaded by clicking on the 'download' link) describes the evaluation carried out by the non-profit organisation "Business for Social Responsibility". It describes why BSI considers this a good example of how to be a force for good business: The review that was carried out The SEAT process The key findings ("SEAT represents an international best practice in sustainable community development" with explanations and examples of why this is so) Conclusions and recommendations The BSR website can be reached here. You can also read a brief overview/summary of the Anglo American approach here.

Anglo Khula Junior Mining Initiative, South Africa

Qualitative Growth by Fritjof Capra and Hazel Henderson has been published by Tomorrow’s Company with the ICAEW.  This paper not only builds on our mission to understand better business success and how it can best be achieved, but also sets this in what Tomorrow's Company describe as the triple context: that sustainable value creation will be rooted in harnessing the full opportunity of recognising the links between the economic, social and environmental sub-systems on which we all depend for our lives and prosperity. Although sustainability is a growing issue, it is not well understood. As the subject is prioritised by business, governments and civil society, the need to clarify how to do it, how to measure and report on it and how to assure sustainability information become key issues. In the ICAEW landmark publication Sustainability: the role of accountants the ICAEW argued that these areas of expertise – building and managing flows of valuable, reliable and trusted information...

SMEs make a vital contribution to our economy - they are huge sources of jobs, innovation and are essential to our communities. But when we talk about the low-carbon economy of the future, it is all too often large businesses that lead the way. In these difficult economic times, many small and medium-sized businesses may well be missing opportunities to not only reduce their cost, but also to open up to new possibilities in the low-carbon economy. We believe that this can largely be explained by the confusing and often contradictory information that is out there - not to any failing on the part of SMEs. Tomorrow's Company works with and for the business community to develop effective solutions to the problems companies face: we have created this guide in partnership with companies, government departments and organisations to assist leaders of businesses large and small, to make the low-carbon transition in a way that makes good business sense and helps secure future business...

Integrating strategies for corporate responsibility and evaluating their impact, both sociallyand environmentally, is becoming increasingly critical to business. Companies are seekingways to successfully put their strategies on sustainability into practice - strengthening theconnection between corporate responsibility and global competitiveness. This paper summarises the key discussion points from a high level roundtable discussionorganised by CIMA and Tomorrow’s Company, where senior business decision makers met with experts in sustainability. Anant Nadkarni, Vice President, Group Corporate Sustainability, Tata Council for Community Initiatives (TCCI) presented the Tata Index to the group.  This has been captured on video and can be found here.