The moral argument for doing good should be reason enough for companies to behave responsibly, a leading expert in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) field has argued.

Sir Geoffrey Chandler, founder-chair of the Amnesty International Business Group and a former senior executive with Shell, said in the latest issue of Ethical Performance that while the business case for ethical behaviour "may be a necessary tactical weapon" to persuade companies to embrace the full range of their responsibilities, "in terms of strategy and principle it is fundamentally flawed".

Sir Geoffrey said: "I don't believe ethical behaviour should depend on its paying. To suggest - as the business case essentially does – that doing right needs to be justified by its economic reward is amoral, a self-inflicted wound hugely damaging to corporate reputation."

"Doing right because it is right, not because it pays, needs to be the foundation of business. If we are to preserve the most effective mechanism the world has known for the provision of goods and services - that is the market economy with the plc its main instrument - then it has to be underpinned by principle."

The monthly newsletter Ethical Performance is aimed at business professionals and has a brief for corporate social responsibility or socially responsible investment.

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