This week I had the rare opportunity to hear directly from CEOs and Senior Vice Presidents from diverse industries about the importance of corporate citizenship to their employees, customers, and bottom line. Marie Lowman, left, Director of International Development at SAS, participated on a panel with The Gap Foundation and the Abbott Fund. Here are the insights I took away from two days of great dialogue:

• Action matters more than rhetoric. Ray Anderson, legendary founder of Interface flooring and textile company, talked about the simple philosophy of empowering employees to achieve aggressive goals. Once your team understands that you are serious about changing the paradigms upon which your business operates, then innovation explodes, turnover reduces, and productivity increases. In the case of Interface, profit has doubled.

• Accountability is king. Particularly in the area of corporate philanthropy and social entrepreneurship, work is often handled in the developing world so outlining expectations from the beginning is imperative. Then, it is incumbent upon all parties to report performance throughout the project. Qualcomm shared their experience with providing a “business in a box" to women in Indonesia so that they can resell cellular and internet services to their community. Kiva talked about the necessity of trust and the importance of auditing in the world of microfinance, particularly when harnessing the power and anonymity of the internet.

• Alignment of incentives. John Replogle, CEO of Burt’s Bees, outlined the 2020 vision for his company. Among other things, he wants to be “off the grid" (generating their own power), provide zero waste to landfills, and cut water consumption by 50%. One way he is hoping to meet these goals is by linking incentives for each employee to these priorities through performance appraisals and bonus programs for specific achievements.

The elephant in the room was uncertainty about the impact that the current economic situation has on organizations’ ability to stay focused on corporate citizenship goals. The attendees this week were guardedly optimistic. My interpretation is that companies who cannot extract CSR or sustainability from their DNA will stick with their programs and emerge from these times with a competitive differentiator – either in terms of product innovation or internal efficiencies that keep costs low. As Ray Anderson repeated to the audience, embracing sustainability is “a better way to bigger profits".

But for those organizations who only have one foot across the threshold or whose leaders are preoccupied with short term results, the commitment to sustainable innovation may wane unless employees find ways to articulate the business case. It will be the exception rather than the rule.