A General Evaluation Model for Sustainable Business Certification

Business, trade and investment are essential pillars for prosperity and peace. But in many areas, business is too often linked with serious dilemmas - for example, exploitative practices, corruption, income equality, and barriers that discourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Responsible business practices can in many ways build trust and social capital, contributing to broad-based development and sustainable markets. Terms as “Sustainable Finance”, “Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)”, “Corporate Socially Responsible” (CSR), “Ethical Business” are new and important concepts which have penetrated the business and social life. It could be interesting to understand if this extraordinary growth it’s explained only by ethical behavior and moral commitment or it’s a just a consequence of a good marketing campaign. Due to its large international influence it is fundamental to analyze, evaluate all the parameters connected to the Corporate Social Responsibility. Managers and companies are now continuously required to demonstrate their ability to manage their social and environmental impact in the countries where they operate. In this context, this paper introduces a general model, based on the construction of a synthetic quantitative index, in order to rate the degree Corporate Social Responsibility. This model measures through the use of the index which evaluates a set of elements fixed by an external and independent Committee or Advisor, such as social political behavior and economic and environmental decisions, the company sustainability level and determine a flexible rating. In this paper we refer to a generic sustainability certification exercise allowing the firm’s social policies evaluation through a synthetic quantitative index that provides a flexible rating in line with the financial ones. The model is conceived to be deployed in other evaluation contexts.