Looking through our archives, I found the PDF of our first ever edition, published the day Enron declared bankruptcy in December 2001.
The design and layout are not good. (In defence of our designer, who remains the same today, we paid him a pittance for it!)
Interestingly, much of the content remains deeply relevant. Some of it shows you how far we have moved in ten years. Other articles show just how much we still don’t know how to manage effectively.
It’s always good to go back sometimes and compare then with now. In many ways the corporate responsibility agenda has changed hugely. In others it’s very much the same.
Our December 2001 edition and our July-August edition 2011 are both embedded below for your perusal and comparison.
What’s different? The issues have ‘spread’ across the business spectrum. We now look at country policy, at specific management indicators, at some genuinely holistic forward looking corporate sustainability strategies
What’s stayed the same? The need for the business case. The need to persuade management and investors, the need to understand what trust means and how to get it, and keep it.
Let’s also not forget the inability of large companies to predict and manage crises, which from 2001 onwards (Arthur Andersen) became much more serious for business sustainability.
See for yourself:
Ethical Corporation in 2001:
Ethical Corporation in 2011:
I'm Tobias Webb, founder of Innovation Forum and Sustainable Wine. I write on this blog, with others, about areas of interest to me in supply chains, circular economy and sustainability in general. I hope you find it useful. I've worked in sustainability for about 20 years, and work with large companies, NGOs and governments all over the world. I often act as facilitator, at our conferences, and other meetings, either private or multi-stakeholder. I also work as a 'critical friend' advisor to companies on strategy and stakeholder engagement. I have a separate wine website on sustainability in wine at 
Öznur Yurtsever
What has changed: sustainability leaders have made social, environmental and governance themes part of their core business
What has not changed: too many companies still do not have sustainability on the real business agenda, but see it as a marginal topic
The gap between the two is becoming bigger and bigger