11.13.2007 - 09:30am ET

(CSRwire) BOSTON, MA - How can corporations be designed so as to blend social, environmental, governance and financial mission at their very core? This is the design challenge of the 21st century. But it has until now remained a problem that has no name – an invisible issue that is absent from the public discourse. The issue is corporate design, which is the topic of a new report released Nov. 13, 2007 by Corporation 20/20, a project of the Tellus Institute in Boston.

The report, "Corporate Design: The Missing Business and Public Policy Issue of the Day," looks at how deeply rooted forces in the design of corporations contribute to countless major issues – the working poor, the shrinking middle class, wealth concentration, corporate scandals, and the ecological crisis. We rarely step back to ask how corporate design gives rise to behaviors that most consider anti-social or, worse, reprehensible. It's common to think of the relentless pressure to deliver rising earnings as somehow intrinsic to the very notion of the corporation, without realizing it is in large measure the outcome of a particular design that has evolved over more than a century. Other designs are possible. Indeed, many are already functioning at large and small successful corporations. The Corporation 20/20 report looks at a half-dozen alternative designs, at companies such as government-chartered Fannie Mae, the family-controlled New York Times, the cooperative Organic Valley, and the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership.

Modern corporations are arguably the most powerful social institutions of our day. In many ways, they govern modern life. But the issue of corporate design has yet to find its place on the public agenda. Instead, debate focuses on single companies, single issues, single incidents. Corporate design has never been subject to the kind of public debate essential to building institutions in democratic societies. It is remarkable, and unacceptable, that such a process has not occurred. We today face a moment in history to correct this gaping hole in national and international governance.

The "Corporate Design" report is being issued as part of the Summit on the Future of the Corporation being held in Boston on Nov. 13-14 (www.summit2020.org), which is the launch point for this new public idea of corporate design for the public good.

The report is the result of three years of work by Corporation 20/20 (www.corporation2020.org). This multi-stakeholder initiative involves some 200 thought leaders from business, finance, law, labor, civil society, and journalism.

Co-authors of the report are Allen White and Marjorie Kelly of the Tellus Institute and Co-Founders of Corporation 20/20. White was a co-founder and CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative, and Kelly was co-founder of Business Ethics magazine and author of The Divine Right of Capital.

To view the report, please click here: www.summit2020.org/CorporateDesign.pdf

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