Fewer than one in three (29%) opinion leaders polled this week believe that business is making a significant contribution to sustainability. Nearly two in three opinion leaders (63%) think that sustainability is a low or non-priority for business - and close to half (47%) believe that businesses will do even less in the current economic climate. These are the results of research conducted by Echo Research, a leading specialist in analysing image and reputation globally.

While pressure groups and non-governmental organisations are recognised as the biggest contributors to sustainability, the media is seen to be fanning the flames of panic.

Sandra Macleod, Group CEO of Echo, said: "Sustainability is about good business practices benefiting all, and this fundamental concept is in danger of being set aside in the face of the credit crunch. Companies are at risk of stifling their planning, innovation and drive for differentiation, which will have a huge impact on their long-term success and current competitiveness as people look for what organisations stand for and how they make themselves fit for the future."

Among corporate sectors, oil & gas and utility businesses appear to be doing more in this area, with defence, mining and the finance sector seen as laggards. As one respondent to Echo's poll said: "The least sustainable companies are those that don't value people as assets, that don't understand the effect of their organisation on the environment and community that they operate in, and that don't practice conservative financial management."

The research results were announced at Echo's Sustainability Summit with keynote speaker Prof. David Grayson CBE, Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility. Other speakers included WWF-UK CEO David Nussbaum, BT's Chief Sustainability Officer Chris Tuppen, Newscorp Group Director Matthew Anderson, Accenture Global Sustainability head Bruno Berthon, and Ginette Tessier, who leads on RNLI's Research and Strategy.

Sandra Macleod said: "Sustainability is about driving economic success, particularly in the current crisis. Business must learn to value it in financial terms. Sustainability is not a bolt-on when times are good; it's an important way of thinking, working and transforming business. This is a journey - and the best way to travel it is through active listening, leading and engaging with people and processes in new, exciting ways, for clear gains on all sides. The foolhardy will resist embracing this at their peril."

Full findings and data on the research programme are available from Echo Research.

Background

Findings based on research conducted by Echo Research between 25 September and 8 October 2008.
Research included:

• Survey of 167 opinion leaders in the UK and US from 25 September to 8 October 2008. Echo Research donated £1 for every completed survey to WaterAid, the international charity devoted to overcoming poverty by enabling the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education;
• an online quantitative survey of 100 subscribers to the leading social utility and networking site, Facebook.com, (the standard Facebook poll framework) between 2-3 October 2008;
• an analysis of the top 100 special interest groups on Facebook with 'sustainability' or 'sustainable' in their titles or discussion thread, each individual group having a membership of between 200 and 2750 on 25 September 2008;
• an online qualitative survey among subscribers to the prominent business-oriented social network LinkedIn.com including opinion leaders from PR, marketing, CSR, sustainability and senior management on 25 September to 1 October 2008;
• tracking of over 200,000 media articles since 2004 worldwide on the issues of climate change, human rights and the economic downturn from various online media aggregators globally up to end September 2008.

Note to Editor

Echo Research is a leading global reputation research organisation that provides independent reputation analysis for clients that include world leaders among the Fortune and FTSE 100, trade associations, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisations and the public sector. Echo provides stakeholder, media and integrated research services to support client needs for insight and benchmarking.

Echo has 165 employees and analysts in offices in Europe and North America, as well as further research centres in Asia and South America. The company has won more than 50 awards for excellence in communications and reputation research since its inception in 1990.

Echo supports the United Nations Global Compact's aim to improve governance and public administration through research, training and advocacy activities ( www.ungc.org). Echo is Registered as Expert Witness ( www.expertwitenss.co.uk), a partner of the Market Research Society, research partner of the Public Relations Consultants Association ( www.prca.org.uk), and founder member of the international Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC, www.amecorg.com).

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Contact: Helen McClure
Tel: +44 (0)7971 719357
Email: helen@p4pr.co.uk

Or
Sandra Macleod, Echo Group CEO
Tel: +44 (0)20 7608 1113
Email: sandram@echoresearch.com
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www.echoresearch.com