On Thursday, I had the pleasure to speak at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Social Enterprise Symposium titled A New Way of Doing Business. About 300 graduate students attended this meeting organized by the Terp Changemaker, a group of U of M students dedicated to building awareness about innovative corporate citizenship strategies.

I participated on the panel Corporate Social Responsibility and the Future of the Private Sector, alongside Niki Zoli, manager of Marriott International, Social Responsibility and Community Engagement and Johanna Polsenberg, vice president of Cassidy & Associates, who moderated.

My main focus was on describing the evolution of CSR and corporate citizenship. The field is growing from "philanthropy" to "strategy." Corporate citizens are being more strategic about their social and civic investments. We’re seeing corporate citizenship become a way of doing business: Maximize the company’s positive impact, minimize the negative impact on the social and physical environment, and provide a competitive return to investors. Companies are a part of long-term social and economic development.

Niki Zoli offered examples of the ways Marriott is positively engaging their communities and showing environmental stewardship, below is Marriott's latest video on offsetting your hotel visit for $1 a day. It is a true testament to growth of CSR and corporate citizenship when business students are incorporating this into their education.