A Dashboard For Well-Meaning CompaniesA Dashboard For Well-Meaning Companies

StakeWare sells software that lets companies track their performance in areas such as environmental protection and human rights. Your company may be doing well financially, but is it doing good?StakeWare's tagline is "sustainability on demand." Sustainability refers broadly to environmental, social, and governance activities. On demand is a reference to the fact that StakeWare's software is available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange.

Here's what it looks like.

StakeWare is among an emerging category of products that comply with the sustainability reporting guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, a nonprofit organization in Amsterdam that receives financial support from ABN-AMRO, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and others. A third version of its specs, known as the G3 Guidelines, was published last year.

StakeWare is a member of the Global Reporting Initiative's tech partner program, along with BSi Entropy International, credit360, Enablon, ESP, Hyperion, Plan A, Proventia Solutions, SAP, and TechniData. Companies can use this category of software to report on their efforts to be good corporate citizens. The Global Reporting Initiative has a project under way that applies the same concept to business partners and suppliers, creating in effect a virtuous supply chain.

Founded in 2004, StakeWare started out developing its applications in J2EE with the idea of selling software the old-fashioned way -- as software -- before changing direction and joining Salesforce's software-as-a-service incubator program. CEO and founder Natan Zaidenweber unplugged StakeWare's own server because it was no longer needed now that the company's software runs in Salesforce's hosted environment. Zaidenweber drives around with the server in the trunk of his car.

StakeWare is in search of its first customer. Presumably, that's a sign that the startup is still coming up to speed, not that businesses don't care about making the world a better place.