Today we heard that Calverts is among the first 20 fully accredited companies in the SEE (Social, Environmental and Ethical Transparency) programme.

SEE is a labelling scheme and social business movement that aims to change the world for good. To display the SEE logo, businesses must be transparent and accountable. We underwent a comprehensive evaluation of Calverts performance, and you can read, respond and rate our answers to thirty five questions covering Community impacts, Corporate Governance, Donations and Payments, the Environment, Human Rights, Marketplace Ethics and Workforce standards on the SEE website.

We first got interested in the SEE concept four years ago, when we heard its indefatigable founder, Michael Solomons, pitch the idea to an audience of investors, business academics and students at the Cass Business School. They didn’t get the concept, but we certainly did. SEE is a measure of transparency and honesty, enabling clients and the public to make truly informed purchasing decisions. We saw straight away how it could be the antidote to all those mystifying environmental management and accountability labels – EMAS, AA2000, Investors in People and so on – and at the same time allow us to develop authentic management tools, share best practice and benchmark ourselves against similiar organisations. If you’re interested to know how we answered questions ranging from how much corporation tax we paid last year, to our policy on carbon offsetting, to our practice on employee consultation or promoting diversity, click here.

If you’d like to know more about the kind of work – and how much – Calverts had to do to become SEE accredited, please get in touch.