The past decade has exposed countless numbers of scandals within the American business world. This unfortunate rise in unethical practices has caused public trust to plummet. However, there is a silver lining to the gray cloud hanging over corporate America. Businesses are starting notice this drop in consumer faith and are scrambling to regain the trust of the public. Given the number of bad businesses practices, outrageous spending, and abuse of trust this will not be an easy undertaking. Nonetheless, major corporations are digging in for the long haul and making socially conscience decisions. The concept of corporate social responsibility is once again taking hold in American businesses.

Corporate social responsibility is defined as a company’s attempt to make decisions based upon cultural ethics, public interest, and even sustainability. In the past, businesses did not believe their corporate model could remain profitable and honor these concepts. Fortunately, these same businesses are realizing that doing what is best for society and the stakeholders can be balanced. In fact, many corporations are introducing this concept into their business model. This can allow them to maintain integrity while taking ethical measures to increase profitability. For example, one major oil corporation currently operating on South Africa has funded and organized schools to educate impoverish children. Another example involves a brewery operating fully on wind energy. There numerous other examples of corporate social responsibility, one just has to look passed the scandals that flood our media.

The concept of corporate social responsibility is not new and was once a common practice in the United States. Unfortunately, companies lost their way over the last three decades and allowed the pursuit of profit to drive every decision. As America moves into a new decade, it is this author’s hope that companies finally learn the true bottom line.