The group was founded in 1987,[2] as a not-for-profit organisation run by a volunteer board of corporate responsibility practitioners.

Its 2009 study found that 84% of corporate responsibility professionals considered the discipline to be a mainstream business issue, compared to 72% in 2006 survey.

[8] In 2005 it produced a study with Ashridge Business School on the state of executive development amongst corporate responsibility professionals.

The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, at the Cranfield School of Management cites the group as a partner.

Among the members - many of which employ members of CRG's volunteer board - are Accenture, British American Tobacco, City of London Corporation, The Crown Estate, Herbert Smith Freehills,[16] IBM, Linklaters, Olswang, QinetiQ, RWE npower, Tata Consultancy Services, Thomson Reuters,[17] Wragge & Co and Zoological Society of London.