Companies that aggressively pursue sustainability will put themselves in a position of unique strategic advantage. Ultimately, this can lead to more efficient business practices, an enhanced brand, and improved fiscal performance.

The benefits of using corporate social responsibility as part of branded content are endless; foremost it helps to build a brands reputation and is a point of differentiation.

What can your brand do? Embrace your community -- i.e., your stakeholders. Start with your employees. Look at ways of adding depth to the relationship you have with them. Commit to becoming a better environmental citizen. Recognize that environmental responsibility is a journey, and create a platform that will permit and encourage your shareholders to join you.

Indeed, as pertains to corporate citizenship, especially in this recessionary window, the times are "a-changing." Those brands that are sensitive to these changes will win the continuing loyalty of their best customers in ways that those that ignore these "early warnings" will not.

If color or form or surface will be at all important to brands in the future, they will need to do more than simply associate with a cause; they will need to demonstrate how brands claim causes for their own.