Do no harm. Do good. With these two basic concepts, socially responsible organizations (SRO) are able to achieve positive bottom-line results while supporting the environment and society.

“Organizations have to know where they’re potentially putting the public at risk,” says Roberto Saco, American Society for Quality (ASQ) president. “Once they mitigate those risks, then there’s another step; that is to actually do good, to see where in their business there’s a special skill or competency to offer. For instance, a maker of contact lenses might want to start a program to offer lenses at lower cost to those in need.”

ASQ recently initiated a national program, The SRO, to promote and help companies understand the value and the advantages of being socially responsible. In addition to promoting a Social Responsibility Think Tank on Nov. 15–17, ASQ has announced a new Spencer Hutchens Jr. Medal for social responsibility. The medal was named after Spencer Hutchens Jr., an ASQ former president, whose personal and business life reflects and demonstrates the desired attributes in the definition and model of social responsibility.

The medal recognizes the achievements of an individual who demonstrates outstanding leadership as an individual, a business leader, and as a cause advocate for social responsibility, primarily focusing on the marketplace, environment, workplace, and community.

Saco says that having an SRO strategy is also not a hindrance to companies’ profitability. Capital investment and training, for instance, are much heavier expenses compared to what companies spend on some socially responsible initiatives.

“You have to be smart about it and don’t put the return of your shareholder at risk," says Saco. “Your SRO approach has to be part of your corporate strategy and be implemented in a way that makes sense. Green technology, for instance, doesn’t only help the environment, it can actually save companies money. Just look internally and find a match; then think of how you can use it to be socially responsible.”

Quality tools can also provide tangible resources to produce sustainable results. So much so that in 2010, the International Organization for Standardization will release ISO 26000, a voluntary standard that will provide common guidance on concepts, definitions, and methods of evaluating a socially responsible organization. For its part, ASQ will host a conference in Milwaukee in 2010 featuring executive roundtables to celebrate the release of the new voluntary standard.

Despite the increasing activity on social and environmental responsibility, there’s not significant management buy-in. “There’s a lot of window dressing without a lot behind it,” Saco explains. "It is an emerging trend and a very slow mindset shift, but I don’t think it’s the norm. I’m hoping that the new generation of managers will see it as something natural in the way to do business in the future.”