A decade ago, few people would have thought that major banks, retailers or Internet companies would need environmental strategies. Yet today, they do -- Bank of America has promised to invest $20 billion on sustainability initiatives over 10 years, Wal-Mart's aggressive environmental efforts are well known and eBay, while selling second-hand stuff, touts the idea of sustainable consumption.

This is largely because expectations of business are always rising. To pick another example: When I was a kid, we didn't think about how or where or under what conditions our sneakers or T-shirts were made. Now brands that sell footwear or apparel maintain expensive and extensive efforts to monitor their supply chains, to avoid possible scandal around child labor or unsafe factories. Just as Nike or Gap do.

So what's the next big issue that companies need to worry about?

The Edelman public relations firm says it's health. Last month, after surveying 15,000 people in 11 countries, Edelman released what it calls its Health Engagement Barometer. The firm says health is emerging as a major corporate responsibility issue, not just for the obvious suspects -- drug companies, insurance companies, the fast-food industry -- but for companies of all kinds.

Of those surveyed, 69 percent said that

business should be as engaged in maintaining and improving personal and public health as it is in maintaining and improving the environment.

Respondents to the survey said they would be more willing to trust, do business with and even invest in companies that are engaged in health issues -- by, for example, making available products that promote health, communicating the health risks of their products, helping their workers become healthier, helping address obesity or contributing to global health.

"Health is joining environment as a major sustainability issue and therefore a major issue for businesses that want to prosper in the future," says Nancy Turett, global president for health at Edelman.

"While health has always been a very personal issue ... now a very large cohort of individuals report themselves being involved in public health and very concerned about public health issues at community, national and global level," she says.

Bruce Hayes, global managing director for health at Edelman, says: "People believe that health is both personal and public and also an increasingly important business imperative and business strategy for companies of all kinds, even those outside the health industry."

Disclosure: I'm doing some consulting for Edelman around the Health Engagement Barometer, and participating in a couple of webinars on the topic. But I'm free to say what I think, as you'll see. Before I do so, take a look at some key findings from the Edelman survey.

This chart reports the benefits of "health engagement" to companies:

Here's how "health engagement" is defined by people who responded to the survey:

These images may be hard to read, I realize. You can read Edelman's full presentation below, as well as here on Slideshare.

Let me offer a few initial reactions to Edelman's findings.