Skip to main content
* UC Irvine access only

Business: Ethical Business
-- Sustainability, Social Enterprise, CSR / ESG

Your comprehensive station for UCI's business research content and beyond!
URL: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/business

Tip

What's the terminology?

Sustainability
Its broad elements are: social, environmental, and economic responsibility, AKA the three pillars of people, planet, and profit.  (source)

Social Enterprise
Those organizations (for profit or non profit) that address a basic unmet need or solve a social problem through a market-driven approach.  (source)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
In CSR, the concept of Responsibility has two sub-meanings.  1- avoiding harm to others, and 2- engaging in charitable or redistributionist activities.  (source)

Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG)
The three aspects of CSR, often discussed  in terms of governance, are abbreviated ESG- Environment, Social, and Governance. (source)

 

Ethical Business:  Lists of Companies

     
   

Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook

  • The DJSI track the performance of the world's largest companies leading in terms of sustainability.  Register to see all DJSI constituent companies.  (The UCI Libraries does not have a subscription to any premium content.)
     
  • RobecoSAM is an investment management firm focused on sustainability.  Register to download its Sustainability Yearbook, which is based on its Corporate Sustainability Assessment of 3,400+ worldwide listed companies.  (The UCI Libraries does not have a subscription to any premium content.)

 

Fortune Magazine
Starting in 2015, Fortune released "Change The World," an annual list of 50 companies that are doing well by doing good.  Fortune also has a website devoted to the list. 

 

Corporate Knights Magazine
A magazine about the intersection of business and society, focusing on all aspects of clean capitalism.  Features a Global 100 list of the most sustainable companies. 

 

Corporate Responsibility Magazine
A magazine from the Corporate Responsibility Association, releasing an annual list of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens, including a breakdown by industry category.  (The UCI Libraries does not have a subscription to any premium content.)

 

US Chamber of Commerce:  Citizens Awards
Since 2000, the US Chamber of Commerce has honored companies for their initiatives to improve communities around the world.

 

Benefit Corporation
 A web resource of for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.  Includes a database of Benefit Corporations. 
 


Ethical Business:  Advocacy & Accountability

 

BSR (Business for Social Responsibility)
A non-profit organization with a mission to build a just and sustainable world.  Offers free research reports and primers that give both analysis and recommendations.  (The UCI Libraries is not a member and therefore does not have access to any premium content.)

 

United Nations Global Compact- Library
A subsection of the UN working to drive change across all aspects of corporate sustainability.  Produces a library of reports and analysis supporting ten ESG Principles.  (The UCI Libraries is not a member of and therefore does not have access to any premium content.)

 

CECP  (Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy)
A CEO-led coalition empowering companies to promote societal engagement.   CECP makes freely available the following two reports listed below.  (The UCI Libraries is not a member of and therefore does not have access to any premium content.)

  • Giving In Numbers-  Annual report of corporate giving and employee engagement data from some of the world’s largest companies. Previous reports are available back to 2013. 
     
  • Giving Around The Globe- Annual report primarily based on data from over 120 of the world’s largest companies located outside of the United States.  Previous reports are available back to 2013. 

 

CorpWatch
A nonprofit group that, through its investigative reporting, works to promote environmental, social and human rights at the local, national and global levels by holding multinational corporations accountable for their actions.

 

WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development)
A global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world.

 

Ethical Business:  Academic and Trade Articles

 

Sustainability: The Journal of Record
Peer-reviewed journal providing exclusive reporting on the implementation of sustainability programs, initiatives, and practices in higher education and industry.

 

Sustainability (Open Access)
Open Access peer-reviewed journal with international, cross-disciplinary coverage on the environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability of human beings. 

 

The Conference Board
Geography: Global
A non-profit business membership and research group. Produces strategy-focused proprietary research reports and articles on topical business issues. 

 

Business Source Complete
Geography: Global
A huge database with millions of articles covering virtually all business subjects.  Includes trade articles, academic articles, business news, and industry reports.  Includes publications like the Journal of Corporate Citizenship and Business Ethics Quarterly. 

 

Factiva
​Geography: Global
Worldwide coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, and business-rich websites.

 

Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Social Responsibility|
An online magazine covering the fields of ethics, governance, corporate responsibility and socially responsible investing.

 

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Peer-reviewed journal with research and practical advice for organizations on the development of tools, practical case studies and an assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to improve their performance and accountability.

 

 

Ethical Business:  Data

 

HumanProgress
A project of the Cato Institute featuring empirical data from reliable sources that look at worldwide long-term trends.  Includes 900+ dynamic datasets (i.e. datasets that allow a user to interact with the data in several ways), and 30+ static datasets (i.e. datasets that do not allow a user to interact much with the data).  

 

Sovereign ESG Portal
From the World Bank.  Incorporates data relevant to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Data are in themes the World Bank considers to be crucial for financial sector representatives to consider when assessing the contribution of investments or policies to sustainable development. 

 

Bloomberg Terminal
 Physical terminal(s) located in the Paul Merage School of Business.  Bloomberg's ESG covers 11,500+ companies in 83+ countries. 

1. Type "company ticker" then hit EQUITY key
2. Type FA ESG and <GO>

 

Connect

How To Connect:

Electronic & Print Resources

Subjects: Business