The Corporate Social Behavior Index, or CSBI is a rating of business character or behavior. The higher the index the more likely we would want such a business to thrive within our community. The CSBI is comprised of a rating within multiple areas. We integrate available data from reliable sources, and we strive to provide you with the most current, accurate and validated information available. We aggregate the data, and will inform you in each case, the source of the data and when it was most recently updated. For many years business has determined by evaluating us -our credit worthiness and other data -whether they choose to do business with us -now we can be empowered to determine -based upon how a business conducts itself -whether we choose to do business with them -and empower them with our consumer spend.

The CSBI is comprised of areas, and each area is comprised of some specific items.

Note that are default ratings are based upon all areas being of equal importance. As you may already be very experienced in the area of Corporate Social Behavior, we have provided an easy way for you to weight all of the attributes above so that the company ratings reflect what you believe are the most important values.

Our ratings data is presently driven by KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. and the Federal Elections Commission. As we grow we will aggregate available data from government agencies, NGO's and trusted research data. We intend to work closely with the Socially Responsible Investment community and where feasible, aggregate, integrate and normalize data and research from many trusted sources of SR research data. We will also be working closely with large organizational partners -such as Unions, Humanitarian, Environmental and Progressive organizations to integrate their data as well.

We prioritize the data sources, and will be building validation and trust weightings into our CSBI engine. Therefore, when competing threads of data are integrated, that are not alike, we will attempt to reconcile through our internal research team and provide the most accurate, trusted data to our alonovo community. We will also be providing business with an opportunity to respond (just as consumers have had an opportunity to respond to credit-report entries that may not be accurate).

For now, no. We feel that other organizations such as Coop America and Social Accountability International have maturing capability and we are working with them to provide guidance and feedback from the alonovo community. Compliance or certification is a vital function which will grow to become an important part of our purchasing decisions. We plan to work closely with the SR standards and compliance community to develop and publish standards for certification, compliance and ratings. We imagine that someday, whether you are buying through our portal, or through a store -you will see a label that certifies that a product has adhered to high standards (labor, environment, energy etc.) on its way to the store shelf.