The idea at the centre of the Global 300 programme is simple - it is a ranking of the largest co-operative and mutual businesses in the world.

The concept of a global ranking was introduced at the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) General Assembly in Cartagena, Colombia in October 2005. The first preliminary listing of the largest 300 co-operative and mutual businesses was released by the ICA at the Forum for a Responsible Globalisation in Lyon, France, one year later, in October 2006. The 2007 Global 300 will be unveiled at the ICA General Assembly in Singapore in October, 2007.

At the heart of this year’s Global 300 programme is the development of a draft measure of Corporate (or rather Co-operative) Social Responsibility, (CSR). Co-operative principles, in particular the ICA’s Statement of Co-operative Identity, are the basis for most co-operative operation throughout the world. Co-operatives, driven by their values have in many ways been pioneers of socially responsible business behaviour. However, the co-operative movement has not done as much as it should have in measuring this co-operative difference. It has allowed others to claim credit for the CSR concept. What is needed is a consistent and rigorous framework to better measure the way co-operatives operate – to demonstrate their combined economic and social benefits.

Some of the best examples of CSR performance are to be found among Global 300 co-operatives and mutuals. However, our preliminary research has shown that co-operatives are not reporting their activities in a consistent way. If anything many are simply following the normal reporting approach of their investor competitors. This has led us to develop a draft measure which incorporates the best aspects of mainstream CSR reporting while taking account of the co-operative difference. We have drawn on the CSR experience of leading co-operatives while also taking account of other standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative. To highlight this new co-operative approach we have used the ICA rainbow colours and linked them to the draft CSR areas or streams of activity we have identified. We would welcome your comments on our approach.

Next we have drawn from our database of detailed Global 300 case studies examples of current practice across the various CSR streams. We hope these ‘samples’ will give the flavour of what some co-operatives are currently doing. While we have chosen to highlight aspects of co-operative behaviour from the featured businesses it is not an exhaustive sample of all that the co-operative is doing. If you are interested we can provide a more comprehensive report drawn from our full CSR database. We have included 13 case studies from within the 2007 Global 300 listing, one from our larger global database, and three from our new Developing 300 ranking.

Finally, on the basis of our work we have proposed a recommendation designed to address the need for co-operatives to adopt a consistent reporting approach to measuring their difference.