For a long time, the idea of corporate responsibility was the subject of ridicule behind the closed boardroom door. But times have changed, as Tony Kearney reports.

There was a time when, to use Marion Schooler's words, social responsibility in business was viewed "as something pink and fluffy".

In the Thatcherite 1980s, greed was good, wages were paid grudgingly and no one was in a hurry to inquire too closely into the working conditions among suppliers, as long as the price was right.

Not any more.

At some point during the 1990s, the consumers who boycotted South African wines and John West tuna moved effortlessly into paying over the odds for Fairtrade and organic produce.

Several major companies began to be hit where it hurts most - in the cash register.

Marks & Spencer's public image suffered immeasurably when it was linked with Third World child labour, McDonald's was accused of being solely responsible for the destruction of the rainforest, and Ford was hammered when black and Asian employees were erased from a poster used in a publicity campaign.

Today, every forward-thinking employer has an eye on responsible business practice.

Hard-bitten business people have not turned into tree-hugging hippies overnight, they have simply realised that the moral high ground is linked to the bottom line. There is cash, it would seem, in kindness.

Marion Schooler is North-East director of Business In The Community, a national membership organisation that channels those good intentions into practice.

The 41-year-old, who initially trained as a lawyer, returned to her native North-East to lead the organisation two years ago after previous stints with the Northern Development Company and the CBI.

Since then, she has reinvigorated the regional office which now has dozens of members, including household names such as Arriva, Greggs, Northumbrian Water, Ward Hadaway, PricewaterhouseCoopers, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer.

It is not philanthropy that drives them, says Ms Schooler, but an understanding that successful businesses need a degree of social responsibility, in the workplace and in the community.

"It isn't altruistic," she said. "They are doing it for solid business reasons, not the good of their health.

"There are a variety of reasons - to develop, motivate and retain staff, to be seen by youngsters in their catchment area as being a good employer and a good place to work.

"There are very strong public relations reasons - brand management and reputation management is a very big issue. Prevention is better than cure and if there is a real danger that some of these issues are going to hit the papers it is better to deal with them in advance."

Corporate social responsibility covers a multitude of sins. Business In The Community helps members examine their workplace practices, their impact in the market place, the community and on the environment, and then suggests improvements.

The most important issue is in staff recruitment and retention.

Several surveys indicate that the majority of potential recruits feel business should play a part in the community, and the percentage rises with the educational level of the potential applicants. In other words, companies that want to recruit and retain the best graduates need to be seen to be putting something back into society.

"Potential recruits are looking more and more at how a company behaves to decide whether it is a good place to work," said Ms Schooler. Issues such as pay, anti-discrimination policies and flexible working hours are important, but community involvement can have the most impact because it is so visible.

The North-East branch of Business In The Community, which operates out of the Team Valley, Gateshead, with a staff of nine, works from Berwick down to the Tees Valley.

Possibly the most impressive example comes from Marks & Spencer.

The company has been working with the region's homeless to try to help them back into work. Having been referred by an agency such as Shelter, homeless people go on a two-week work placement with the high street store, are trained in job-seeking skills and are given a guarantee they will at least be considered for a job with the company.

To date, 28 of Tyneside's homeless have found jobs through the scheme, both at Marks & Spencer and elsewhere, including one in the firm's new lifestyle store at the Gateshead MetroCentre.

So impressed has the high street retailer been, it is willing to take as many homeless people as the agencies can find, while Business In The Community hopes to extend the scheme to other companies and also to Middlesbrough, the region's other centre of homelessness.

Volunteer schemes are the most obvious way of demonstrating commitment and also allow for staff development. For example, Northumbrian Water's Just An Hour scheme, in which every employee is allowed an hour of paid time a month to work in the community, is an opportunity that a quarter of the workforce has taken up, and management have noticed an immediate difference in staff motivation and productivity.

Such activity can become a part of the corporate culture. Ward Hadaway is so keen its lawyers have experience outside the courtroom that volunteer activity has become a part of solicitors' appraisals.

Education and employability is a major part of Business In The Community's work, whether it is linking senior managers with headteachers to impart some of the business skills needed to run a school, providing mentors from the business world for schoolchildren, or simply providing the opportunities for work placement and site visits.

WH Smith supplies surplus stock to a reading group set up by parents and teachers in South Shields, while other companies supply the mentors to read with the children. In one of the most successful schemes set up, bakers Greggs was persuaded to supply a breakfast club at a Gateshead school in 1999, and now operates a network of 70 such clubs around the country.

"The companies are passionate about it," said Ms Schooler. "It's all about how to get youngsters, particularly in more deprived areas, to see they can get a job and how they can do something in the North-East. It makes a real difference."