It’s official – acting in a corporately responsible manner is not only good for the soul, it can also seriously improve your business. At least that’s what a new survey from one of the largest global investment banks claimed on the eve of the UN’s two-day Global Compact summit in Geneva .

According to Goldman Sachs, companies on their ethical list outperformed the MSCI World Index by an average of 25 per cent. Furthermore, 72 per cent of companies also outperformed their sector peers.

All of which should be enough to make those companies being dragged kicking and screaming into a more corporately responsible world sit up and take notice, even though the latest findings fly in the face of previous figures concerning ethical indices.

Since 2000 it has been widely acknowledged that indices, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good, have performed well below the stock market average. The latest study, however, claims that this can be attributed to the fact that the indices are based on ethical environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in isolation.

McKinsey have also got in on the act, launching another survey that illustrates the growing importance of CSR and demonstrating that social responsible conduct is no longer viewed as a costly burden, but is now seen as a means of leveraging a competitive advantage over their peers.

McKinsey surveyed almost 400 top executives of Global Compact companies and found that the past five years have seen companies do more than ever before to ensure that ESG issues are integrated in their business strategies.

Striking a cautionary note though, McKinsey found that there was still a gap between the intentions and actions of many companies, with findings suggesting that only 50 per cent of CEO ’s think their companies were doing enough to embed new CSR practices into company strategy.