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Companies looking to boost their sustainability credentials by tapping their stakeholders, such as academics, investors or NGOs, often end up with better internal programs and more transparent CSR reports.

That's according to Beth Ginsberg Holzman, manager of CSR strategy and reporting at Timberland Co. Ginsberg Holzman joined James Farrar of SAP AG and moderator Mark Heintz of HP Wednesday at the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference to offer insight into how engaging stakeholders ultimately enhances business value.

Stakeholder input led Timberland to draft a public policy statement on climate change and integrate its various corporate responsibility pillars into a single strengthened strategy.

"I think what we've really found in the value of engaging stakeholders to bring us to that strategy is that we've become much more focused and deliberate about the interactions between those areas, and how we think about innovation, cost savings and particularly the way we present our CSR initiatives and return on investment, both internally and externally," Ginsberg Holzman said.

Meeting with HP's stakeholder advisory council convinced company executives to disclose its list of suppliers to raise standards in technology supply chains. There was some initial hesitation to divulge secrets to the council, Heintz admitted.

"Its been amazing to see the transition in the executives," Heintz said. "When I first set it up, there was a little bit of paranoia in the company ... they just assumed that all NGOs were walking around with protest signs in their back pockets and shareholder resolutions in their breast pockets."

The company brought up the idea of divulging its top suppliers in its 2007 Global Citizenship Report, making it the first IT company to follow in the steps of the apparel industry to foster sustainable sourcing. But HP executives were initially on the fence: Why should they do it?

"Forty-five minutes after we started this conversation, the same executives were saying, 'I'm not sure why we wouldn't do this.'" Heintz said.

Heintz described three key ways that stakeholders offers value to HP.

The first relates to program development. "Many of the stakeholders we work with -- NGOs and others -- have expertise we just don't have in house," Heintz said. "So it's an opportunity to bring this expertise in to improve our programs, which helps us with better products and policies. We almost use stakeholder relations as market research to test out ideas and things like that."

Stakeholder relations also broadens the company's sphere of influence, sometimes in ways it didn't expect. "The more you reach out to stakeholders, the more you get to leverage off the people and organizations that they know."

Association with respected stakeholders, such as NGOs, enhances HP's brand value. "It adds a lot of credibility to programs that have those kinds of partners involved in the development," Heintz said. "I think it can even add to our competitive advantage."

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