3. Data Repository stores and organizes data and files in any format, to document corporate performance against any of 200 criteria. Excel, Access, and Word files, as well as photos, illustrations, and websites can be quickly attached to enable better and easier reporting.

4. Report-Builder quickly and efficiently builds basic CSR and sustainability reports, compiling text and data to meet the standards of GRI, Dow Jones, and FTSE formats, as well as social investor inquiries.

Formerly known as the CAP Gap Audit, the GC360 software includes a powerful analysis tool that provides better performance assessment, management information, trend analysis and strategy creation.

For example, Coca-Cola is deploying the 360 at more than 300 members of the Coca-Cola system, comprised of Company-owned operations and bottler organizations. The results of the 360 are used by both senior leadership and the functional managers. "For the top folks, the 360 communicates the benefits of various CSR activities to the business," says Perry Cutshall, Director of Operations Development, Coca-Cola Global Public Affairs. "But equally important is to get the functional managers involved, the people who actually do things... You need buy-in from both directions. Not just the top or just the bottom, but from both."

To convey the findings of the 360, companies use a function called the Executive Report Card, which rates every business function using a classic A-to-F grading scale. "The robustness of the Report Card has been great for our bottling operations," said Cutshall of Coca-Cola. "We have actually added a self-generated report to the process that addresses the reason for actions by each business unit. It is more or less an assessment summary for internal management use."

General Motors brought together more than a dozen high-level executives to conduct the 360. "The process itself is the greatest value," said David Barthmuss, energy and environmental communications manager for GM. "Answering questions with all the different people in the same room was very important to do to make sure every area was on track. We shared our confidential information and perceived gaps. We opened up the vault," he remarked. "Everyone fed off one another, developing a lot of energy, passion, and commitment to carry out their roles."

The Report-Builder and Data Repository are efficiency tools to help companies better prepare corporate sustainability reports. "The 360 allowed us to develop our Triple Bottom Line report," says Michael Goldman, Vice President of Cascade Engineering, a $300 million a year manufacturer of automotive supplies. "The 360 collapsed and compared our performance in each of the standards. It consolidated all of the major standards into an audit tool and organized the data in very simple sections: corporate governance; workplace issues; community issues; marketplace issues; and, environmental issues. The process showed us where we had gaps. It showed us a practical way to shift values and to improve our performance."

The process brings order and practicality to the confusing world of sustainability and social responsibility. "The 360 helps people see what is critical to implementation, and this creates incentives to take ownership," according to Jean Rogers, Principal Associate for ARUP and a consultant to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). "People begin talking about their own role in the process, what they need to report in the next reporting cycle. The plethora of principles, codes and standards are very confusing. The 360 helps explain that to individual business units. It brings CSR down to earth."

The 360 process developed by The Future 500 is used by large and medium-sized enterprises to develop strategy, prepare reports, and improve performance in social responsibility.

The cost-effective process can be carried out in any of several ways: by the company, by The Future 500, and through working groups of The Conference Board.

GC360 is a "next-generation CSR tool", bringing the power of software and sophisticated methodologies to minimize costs, maximize value and drive the end result - highly efficient and effective global citizenship performance.

For information, contact Alison Wise or Nikole Wilson-Ripsom at The Future 500, 415-294-7775, or click for a Global 360 Summary Brochure.

About Future 500: Uniquely qualified to conduct the 360 process, Future 500 forges links between corporations and stakeholders to advance global citizenship. With a staff of executives from both the corporate and NGO sectors, we are leaders in stakeholder engagement, pioneering the tools, strategies and processes that help disparate parties identify common ground, address society's critical problems, and effect lasting, positive change. Future 500 is based in San Francisco and Tokyo, with affiliates in China and Seattle. www.future500.org.