I am pleased to inform you that this week, among discussions and initiatives of Rio+20 and green economy, an online resource center dedicated to mapping and tracking the diversity of corporate stakeholder engagement practices has been launched: called Critical Friends International (www.criticalfriendsinternational.com)

It builds on “Critical Friends”, a report that Utopies co-produced in 2007 (with AccountAbility). Since then, companies worldwide have continued to use panels and to explore the many possibilities of stakeholder engagement in order to help them understand and respond to emerging social and environmental issues, as well as to increase the credibility and the pace of their sustainability approach. Brazil is the first country focus, therefore, context information and cases studies are presented in the platform.

Today, the most advanced companies explicitly try to build a stronger connection between engagement and business strategy development, with particular efforts to involve stakeholders in innovation or to bridge the gap between stakeholder engagement and corporate governance. See the plaform for references, information, tools, quiz and inspiering cases. Check and share: www.criticalfriendsinternational.com