SEE What You Are Buying Into is a labelling scheme and a social movement.

It identifies businesses that are publicly accountable on a range of important Social, Environmental and Ethical issues. It also empowers the individual by enabling anyone to drive up levels of openness and honesty in business.

Businesses that complete the evaluation process and that wish to publish their guaranteed information on this website for public scrutiny, comment and rating are licensed to display the SEE Logo.

By displaying the SEE Logo on their packaging, service information, websites, and indeed any other business materials, SEE listed businesses instantly communicate the fact they are transparent and accountable. People are then in a position to make consumption, employment and even investment decisions so as to reward these open and honest businesses.

Our planet is in a mess. Our economic systems are failing. Social, Environmental and Ethical problems and dilemmas abound.

When businesses, especially the biggest ones, make claims to be ethical, trustworthy or environmentally-friendly, people are often cynical and sceptical. But distrust of business helps no one. Indeed it works against finding solutions to SEE problems and dilemmas.

Openness and honesty build vital trust and aids communication between companies and the public. SEE What You Are Buying Into provides businesses with an opportunity to describe and explain how they respond to complex, ever-changing SEE issues. There is no requirement that businesses must somehow be perfect, they are simply required to publicly justify their practices. The SEE scheme proves that businesses can be open, honest, trustworthy AND successful.

No. CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility. It is a vague term that means different things to different people. At one end of the spectrum, CSR is regarded a vital and valuable part of modern business where companies meet their social responsibilities and give something back to the community. At the other end, it is regarded as a cynical ploy used by business to create a veneer of responsibility and/or to resist attempts to legislate or regulate for greater business responsibility. Some commentators have wryly pointed out that the rise of CSR in recent years has coincided with accelerated environmental destruction and further demise of public trust in business.

SEE is the acronym for Social, Environmental and Ethical. The meanings of the words are applied in the normal, ordinary ways and cover the range of issues that affect businesses and wider society. Such SEE issues are a fact of life for everyone and every business, whether they engage in activities they call CSR or not.

SEE What You Are Buying Into was started in response to the increasing numbers of businesses 'doing CSR' without any credibility.

'Greenwash' is corporate propaganda related to social, environmental and/or ethical issues and/or the overstatement or exaggeration of such commitments or achievements. It is used to various ends: selling new 'green' goods or services with little or no environmental benefit, manipulating public perception and reputation, and disguising negative SEE impacts.

Greenwash is bad for several reasons. It makes people cynical toward business and sceptical of all SEE claims, regardless of whether they are credible or not. It frustrates the efforts of genuinely responsible companies to connect with like-minded consumers. And it 'dumbs down' the issues and leads to a race to the bottom because it creates incentives for companies to invest in the appearance of being sustainable rather than actually operating sustainably.

Any type of organisation can become SEE listed. While businesses were the starting point and remain the focus of the SEE scheme, a number of non-business organisations (e.g. governmental organisations, NGOs and various not-for-profits) have enquired about undertaking the SEE listing process.

People often ask whether certain 'dodgy' businesses - such as arms manufacturers, tobacco companies, banks or oil companies - could gain a SEE listing. 'Yes' is the short answer, it is possible. This stated, it is unlikely, certainly in the short term.

The SEE scheme demands openness and honesty across a broad range of SEE issues. Companies cannot pick and choose which parts of the SEE Questionnaire they wish to respond to. There are several questions that would be difficult, impossible or deeply embarrassing for some businesses to answer publicly.

Many businesses don't offer information on SEE matters, such as taxation or corruption, for example, or their impact on communities at home or indigenous peoples overseas. Currently, very few large global corporations have shown genuine ambition or interest in offering up reliable information for public scrutiny, comment and rating. Some do offer statements of intent, but these can be ambiguous and provide no definite guarantees regarding their operations.

However, we do not have to resign ourselves to this state of affairs. Any business can change and improve. So, if a company with a questionable track record can honestly demonstrate its progress and commitment to transparency by joining the SEE scheme, this would be a great step forward. The first business from a 'dodgy' sector to become SEE listed should be recognised as a leader, an innovator and an agent for positive change.

Click here to nominate businesses - those you consider 'dodgy' or otherwise - that you would like to see participating in the SEE scheme.

Yes, with regard to openness and honesty. Companies are not required to meet specific criteria in terms of policy or performance - such as always sourcing locally, or supporting fair trade, or recognising unions in the workplace for example - but they are required to meet the highest standards of disclosure: that they are fully transparent and accountable on a comprehensive range of SEE issues.

SEE Ltd is very careful to demonstrate the questionnaire tool and explain the rigors of the evaluation process to all would-be participants before they can join. The teeth in the Terms are also explained in detail. The premise is simple: if you can't be wholly open and honest, don't join the SEE scheme. SEE Ltd won't hesitate to use its powers to de-list companies where breaches occur.

Participating businesses must agree to rigorous legal Terms and Conditions [Terms and Conditions], in order to publish their information on the SEE website. The Terms contain several checks and balances including:

• Every SEE listed business must guarantee its responses as accurate, complete and verifiable;
• They must be maintained as such at all times:
• The information on this website is policed by the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
• If a business listing is ever challenged, the business is required to prove its information, quickly and irrefutably;
• SEE Ltd can challenge a SEE listed business on any issue at any time:
• SEE Ltd reserves the right to visit any business, unannounced, and make random spot-checks;
• Any SEE listed company in breach of the Terms can be removed from the SEE website;
• SEE Ltd reserves the right to publish the details of any challenges, complaints, correspondence and decisions to de-list a company on the SEE website;
• SEE Ltd reserves the right to refuse a SEE listing in the first place.

Any business that fails to meet the Terms in full and at all times will be de-listed from the SEE website and its licence to carry the SEE Logo will be revoked.

If you dispute any company information published on this website, challenge it using the comment and rating forms, and/or by contacting SEE Ltd directly.

While SEE Ltd takes the decision on whether answers are complete (against the answering requirements published for each question) and that each response clearly and genuinely reflects an organisation's policy and practice, it is the public that ultimately decide if the quality of a company's policies and practices are good enough. They can make comments and rate every response published on the website. The test is: can the business publicly justify what it does? If a company can not, it will not participate in the SEE scheme.

SEE Ltd was started as a business - as a company limited by shares - to create a 'credible CSR platform'. With experience our ambitions have changed. But, as the SEE scheme has developed, the reasons for remaining as a business have increased rather than diminished.

Being a for-profit business is now an important matter of principle. There is no better way to understand:

• how challenging it is to make a profit while making responsible choices; and
• that competing objectives must somehow be balanced and compromise is often unavoidable.

Crucially, because we operate according to the same rules as all other businesses, we can state with confidence and authority that:

• it is reasonable to expect business to be open and honest;
• transparency and accountability are business benefits not costs; and
• a pro-prosperity, pro-profit philosophy does not require an anti-planet, anti-people approach.

No. It simply could not succeed if it was. Businesses will only participate in the SEE scheme if they have confidence in the rigour of the SEE scheme and perceive value in participation.

SEE Ltd has required a significant amount of patient capital, over the years, to build it up from scratch. We intend to have a self-sustaining, long-term scheme that will change the way business is done, one that makes transparency and accountability the accepted way to do business.

SEE Ltd's day-to-day business is operating and further developing the SEE scheme and brand. Mostly we:

• research and develop the SEE Questionnaire with the SEE Partners to ensure the questions are always relevant;
• propose ties and build relationships with new SEE Partners;
• maintain the secure, bespoke online tool that enables companies to answer the SEE Questionnaire;
• use our knowledge and experience to help companies better understand the SEE issues they face and help improve their policies and practices;
• advise and support companies in creating accurate, appropriate and complete responses to the SEE Questionnaire;
• publish company responses and information on this website for public scrutiny, monitoring and comment;
• monitor SEE listed companies' progress in improving their SEE practices and policies; and
• promote brand recognition to achieve our mission - to make the world a better place.