Not sure of the methodology used by The Economist on the study below, however, the results are not surprising to me.  Companies with sustainable business practices are being rewarded by lenders, investors, employees and, increasingly, customers.  My firm has a paper coming out on this topic later this week.  It will be on our website.  I will post a link.

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Economist Study Finds Correlation Between CSR and Growth

Companies that experienced share price increases of 50 percent or more over the last three years place a greater importance on social and environmental objectives than companies with share prices that have declined by more than 10 percent, according to Doing Good: Business and the Sustainability Challenge, which finds a correlation between social and environment responsibility and corporate performance. On individual issues, 40 percent of share price climbers say improving environmental and human rights in supply chains is an important issue, compared to 18 percent of companies whose share price declined; 38 percent of climbers said reducing greenhouse gases was a priority (compared to 24 percent of decliners); and 49 percent placed a strong emphasis on developing products that address social and environmental problems (compared to 35 percent). Share price climbers also put a greater emphasis on social and environmental considerations at the board level of the company.