THERE was a time when private sector organisations only engaged in charitable and community activity at the whim of a paternalistic chairman – usually to the chagrin of the finance director.

Today, companies realise that corporate social responsibility (as we now call it) is an integral part of their brand identity.

The commercial success of historic leaders in the field – companies like Ben & Jerrys, The Body Shop and the Co-op – has demonstrated beyond doubt that CSR can not only contribute to the bottom line but is often critical to an organisation’s success.

Taking a responsible and sustainable approach to the community in which it operates – be it a local or a global community – has become for some companies the defining characteristic of their brand, at the heart of its equity and, often, the driving force behind business growth.

But even for companies which don’t operate in a global consumer marketplace – like many of the firms which sit on the North West Leadership Group (NWLG) of the Prince’s Trust – taking a structured and thoughtful approach to CSR delivers tangible benefits.

It can be, variously, a way of developing skills and workforces; of maintaining good relations with neighbours and suppliers; and of demonstrating to customers a commitment to the communities in which they operate.

Above all, though, CSR recognises that social and environmental sustainability is as important to a business as financial sustainability. It recognises that a healthy marketplace is about more than the available pound in the customer’s pocket and that unless we have a healthy marketplace, we can never have a healthy business.

Advocates include some of the world’s most powerful business people, from Bill Gates down, and closer to home include Charles Dunstone, the co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse, who is speaking at The Prince’s Trust NWLG meeting in Liverpool in October about running a successful business which incorporates CSR.