The paper by Laszlo Zsolnai and Zoltan Valcsicsak on “Business for the Greater Good: GNH Rating for Enterprises” was published in Dasho Karma Ura and Sangay Chophel (Eds.): GNH of Business – Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Gross National Happiness. (Thimpu, The Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH, pp. 56–75.)
Laszlo Zsolnai and Zoltan Valcsicsak argue that Gross National Happiness (GNH) provides an alternative framework that can help enterprises to develop broader, more inclusive business models that aim to serve the greater good of society. The four pillars of GNH may be used to develop a holistic, multidimensional scheme to measure the environmental, social, cultural, and governance performance of business enterprises.
Zsolnai and Valcsicsak presented an operational model which suggests rating companies according to their performances in pillars defined by GNH. The underlying logic of their suggested rating scheme is as follows: GNH* rating means that the given enterprise satisfies basic criteria of environmental conservation. GNH** rating means that the given enterprise satisfies the basic criteria of environmental conservation and equitable socioeconomic development. GNH*** rating means that the given enterprise satisfies the basic criteria of environmental conservation, equitable socioeconomic development, and good governance. Finally, GNH**** rating means that the given enterprise satisfies the basic criteria of environmental conservation, equitable socio-economic development, good governance, and cultural preservation. It is proposed that individual ratings would be determined by a representative stakeholder group that includes members of the public and private sectors as well as of the community.