This March McKinsey released an interesting Global Survey, “How companies manage sustainability.”

“Indeed 72% of respondents says considering sustainability is “extremely” or “very  important”  for  managing  corporate  reputation  and  brands.”

The report covers the importance of sustainability being one of the top three priorities on the CEO’s list and energy companies might serve as a role model given they are closer to the dual issues of “potential regulation and increasing natural resource constraints.”

As to branding sustainability, in those cases where there is an authentic story and track record to back up claims, the marketer’s checklist ought to include getting the word out by publishing a sustainability section on the Corporate Website, embedding sustainability data in communication mainstream investors,  issuing a sustainability report, communicating with socially responsible investors, and participating in rankings and indexing, although many of the lists these days are PR hokum.  Here’s the chart showing these options with orange representing the more proactive companies.  Download the PDF from this site.

McKinsey Global Survey 3/2010

Bottom line:

“Most companies are not actively managing sustainability, even though executives think it’s important to a variety of corporate activities. Those that do are reaping benefits for themselves and for society.”