CORPORATE collapses, mutual fund scandals and management malfeasance have heightened investors' sensibilities about ethical and fair business practices. And this new interest and concern about the moral character and ethical behavior of companies will impact the products people buy, where they want to work and how they choose to invest their money.

The impact is spreading beyond the narrow confines of corporate governance and accounting integrity to broader indicators of good corporate behavior. A variety of high quality surveys and studies have identified the beginnings of a groundswell of interest among the regular investing public in the social and environmental practices of the companies they invest in. This in turn is driving mainstream public and private institutional money managers to respond to the market's needs by increasingly incorporating corporate responsibility screening into their investment decision making processes.

Few public companies currently are using their websites to effectively communicate their corporate responsibility standards and practices. To ensure that they address the growing interest in ethical business practices, investor relations executives must communicate a message of corporate credibility, accountability and trust to their audiences. And as the primary source of company information, the company's website is pivotal to an effective IR communications program.

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