In kindergarten we’re all taught to play fair. It’s the golden rule, the ethic of reciprocity: treat others as you would like to be treated. Yet when it comes to the business world, what becomes of this golden rule? The individual rule of “being good to one another” does not have an equivalent proverb when we consider larger human systems, especially in regards to the corporate world.

Still, being viewed as “good” is golden. It’s a desirable and elusive status that triggers businesses to invest large amounts of marketing dollars. Yet nobody seems to have successfully branded themselves as a truly good multinational corporation. In which big business do you have 100% faith in long-term social and environmental sustainability commitments?

Nobody seems to have successfully branded themselves as a truly good multinational corporation

I’ve been quick to sing the praises of smaller businesses that have built “good” into their brand architecture. But it is significantly easier for small to mid-size businesses to understand their social and environmental impacts. Monitoring down-the-line suppliers is, in theory, a more manageable task. The greater question is about the big guys. Are the biggest brands in the world too big to be good?

We have yet to see a global brand achieve a significant amount of public trust. At the moment, for example, there are no Fortune 500 companies certified as B Corporations. Most corporate leaders are daunted, if not completely immobilized by the task of social and environmental sustainability. But the most progressive brands are still taking bold action.

Here are three major brands experimenting with good:

Google has set the intention to be good, but is it? The world’s number one search engine has yet to win our unquestioning trust, but despite the naysayers, Google is one of the most recognized and lucrative brands on the planet. Carbon neutral since 2007 and consistently high on CSR rankings (PDF), the data-harvesters are guided by 10 principal tenets, one of the most poignant of which reads: “You can make money without doing evil.” And when it comes to proactive social change the company has developed Google.org, which is “the philanthropic arm of Google.” The efforts at Google.org include reuniting people after natural disasters, monitoring disease outbreaks, and enabling access to clean water. Google will be the true leader of “good” when they treat doing good not simply as an “arm,” but as the heart of their business. Google’s new motto should read: “You can make money without doing evil, and even do good.”

You can make money without doing evil, and even do good.

General Electric is determined to solve the world’s biggest problems by finding solutions in energy, health, home, transportation, and finance. Its big-picture approach to corporate citizenship is “to make money, make it ethically, and make a difference.” Like Google.org, GE has a philanthropic wing–GE Foundation–that provides financial support for education, health, and disaster relief. Where I give GE most credit, however, is with the Ecomagination project. It’s their commitment to innovative solutions to today’s environmental challenges while driving economic growth. Rather than the ghettoization of philanthropy, Ecomagination is exploring how environmental sustainability and profit can go hand in hand. That’s the future of doing good.