BUS 100, Introduction to Business

E. Ethics and Sustainability

In this section you want to assess your company's approach to ethics and sustainabilty through its policies, guidelines, and objectives or goals (or lack thereof).

Company Web Site

This should be your first stop when researching a company - it's a good source for:

• mission, vision and values statements
• recent annual reports
• environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports
• corporate standards (e.g., ethics, sustainabilty, and equity, diversity and inclusion)
• strategic statements
• organization & structure of a company
• current financial information
• company promotion & marketing tools
• product information
• employment information, including current openings

Corporate information may be buried on the main web site - look for an "About Us" or "Company" or "Investors" link on the home page.

But remember: the main purpose of a company's web and annual report site is to promote itself, so "trust but verify" - all of the information on the company's achievements and performance can (and should be) be verified in external sources.

Company Filings

More and more companies are establishing Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics statements; these are often filed with the federal bodies that regulate securities:

If you are searching in our databases or using your favourite search engine, here are some words and phrases to combine with the company name:

• environmental social governance OR esg
• ethics OR ethical
• values
• conduct
• compliance
• sustainability
• reputation
• greenwashing
• corporate social responsiblity

The following databases are good places to search for news, articles, reports, reviews and other sources related to a product, brand, company or industry.