Key Journals
- Duke Environmental Law and Policy ForumDuke's environmental forum presents scholarship related to both the legal and policy analyses of environmental issues.
- Journal of Renewable and Sustainable EnergyOnline journal that combines top sustainable energy stories with a blog as well audio and video interviews.
- Stanford Social Innovation ReviewStanford's Center for Social Innovation publishes strategies, tools, and ideas for nonprofits, foundations, and socially responsible businesses.
- Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy (SSPP)Peer-reviewed, open-access journal that facilitates communication among scientists, practitioners, and policy makers working towards sustainable solutions.
Company News
Learn specific details about recent events affecting the company and the industry. Perhaps they recently hired new top executives or they were affected by industry or market changes.
- FactivaFull-text online service for international news and business information. Covers over 28,000 sources in 23 languages in more than 150 countries. Some company and market research is included. Factiva includes full-text coverage of the Wall Street Journal.
- Nexis UniProvides access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.
- ProQuestArticles from newspapers, business, and trade journals.
What's the company's record on sustainability?
Apart from searching news sources for information on a company, also check out ESG Manager (formerly Global Socrates), a database specifically made for investors interested in a company's record on sustainablity.
- MSCI ESG DirectA comprehensive research database, measuring the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of corporations. The web-based database contains ESG and controversial business involvement research on more than 4,000 companies in 50+ global markets. The database provides over 200 ESG indicators and over 2,000 ESG points. It provides continuous global coverage for involvement in controversial lines of business, such as nuclear power, tobacco, and weapons. Previously known as ESG Manager on Campus.
Type of Company
What type of social enterprise are you looking to join?
Social Business: is a cause driven business according to Muhammad Yunus of the Yunus Centre (Yunus Centre: Social Business). "In a social business, the investors/owners can gradually recoup the money invested, but cannot take any dividend beyond that point...Sustainability of the company indicates that it is running as a business. The objective of the company is to achieve social goal/s."
L3C: According to the Non-Profit Law Blog, "the low-profit, limited liability company, or L3C, is a hybrid of a nonprofit and for-profit organization. More specifically, it is a new type of limited liability company (LLC) designed to attract private investments and philanthropic capital in ventures designed to provide a social benefit. Unlike a standard LLC, the L3C has an explicit primary charitable mission and only a secondary profit concern. But unlike a charity, the L3C is free to distribute the profits, after taxes, to owners or investors."
Social Finance: a movement based on the belief that financial innovation can be used directly to help society’s neediest people. (The Economist, Financial Innovation and the Poor, Sept. 25, 2009.)
B Corporation: A term coined by B Lab, “Certified B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corps are unlike traditional businesses because they meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental performance standards, meet higher legal accountability standard and build business constituency for good business.” (B Lab: About B Corps.)
Flexible Purpose Corporations: A bill, S.B. 1463, is currently being brought before the California legislature that would introduce a new entity: the Flexible Purpose Corporation (FPC). Traditional corporations are obligated to put profitability above all else. The FPC allows corporations more leeway in pursuing “special purposes” or social and environmental missions. To learn more about FPCs, visit Business for Good's FAQ here.
Top Companies
Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies
Forbes' World's Most Sustainable Companies, 2018
Newsweek's environmental ranking of America's 500 largest corporations