When companies are asking themselves how sustainable all the noise they made on sustainability was, and the tinkle of corporate social responsibility announcements is getting less and less audible amidst the growing economic gloom, British Telecom has come out with a sustainability index for Indian companies.

But this one, unlike other standards to measure the sustainability of companies, tracks the popularity of companies based on their real or perceived good work on social, economic and environmental fronts.

BT recently came out with a list of companies that fared well on the index, which is a survey of 215 experts and 1,600-odd employees of top IT companies.

In other words, it is an opinion poll. It should be heartening for companies to see the impact of the money they spent on public relations to spread the word about their CSR packages as well as their various sustainability awards. So is it another such CSR road show?

The first BT survey has rewarded points to 11 companies for topping the charts.

BT says it came out with this index as it wanted to create an atmosphere for businesses based on sustainability and more so because it wanted to expand its work in India.

Sustainability has to make business sense, says its global CSR head Janet Blake candidly, adding that it intends to do business in a big way in India in these areas. This is about taking CSR to level 2.0.

"We want to be thought leaders and our way to do business is by creating a market for sustainable business and then by introducing green products and services," says Blake, pointing out the green business projects it has in Britain and in the rest of Europe.

For instance, it helps offices in making employees work from home, with BT itself leading the trend in England nearly a decade ago by asking 10,000 workers to operate from home.

Today, it has a range of products that help in tele-working, besides services like assessment of carbon emissions. Other companies have also been coming out with such products in Europe in response to the compulsions of Kyoto Protocol, which obliged European countries to cut carbon emissions.

Now, the compulsions of the downturn would make these products even more attractive, not only abroad but also in countries like China and India which are not bound by any carbon emission target.

So even if the method of the index may not be universally acceptable, everyone gains if companies become aware of the need and the means to save energy.

Now about the method -- the Global Sustainability Reporting Initiative and the other global initiatives bank on declaration by companies on their performance in various key areas. For instance, they must declare specifics about labour agitations, use of water and energy, and so on.

It is for the world to go and find if the claims are true.