Corporate social responsibility programmes are still dominated by talk, rather than hard action, according to a new survey by computer giant IBM. Some 70% of companies do not collect data frequently enough to make strategic decisions that could address inefficiencies across eight major categories, including CO2, waste, and labour standards.

Similarly, 89% of executives claim to be focusing on CSR, though 65% still don’t understand stakeholders’ concerns about CSR issues.

“Our survey participants clearly understand that integrating CSR considerations into their business strategies is essential to their growth and performance," said Eric Riddleberger, IBM's business strategy consulting global leader. "But it's also pretty obvious many of them don't know what they need to know to actually make changes that would improve both business performance and societal impact.”