Figures released this month show the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange collectively put less than one per cent of their earnings back into the community.

This statistic alone would suggest the notion of corporate social responsibility, virtually unheard of in mainstream discussion before 2000, has a long way to go before it becomes genuinely meaningful.

A recent Mori Poll on the public's views on corporate social responsibility show a stubborn scepticism, with more than half the population doubting the motives of big business.

Small pride may be derived from the fact a Sussex-based company, Royal & Sun Alliance, topped this year's Giving List compiled by The Guardian and Business in the Community.

The insurance provider, which has its headquarters in Horsham, ploughed 8.3 per cent of its pre-tax profits - £1.54 million - back into community-based projects last year.

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline, which has a large manufacturing plant in Crawley, was the biggest overall donator, contributing almost £80 million to good causes - 2.3 per cent of its pre-tax profits.

But the notion companies genuinely "care" still rings hollow, it seems. People still believe most big businesses are devotees of the most red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalism.

Yet, putting aside the percentage game of donation against profit, a great deal is being done to forge closer links between businesses and the towns and cities they occupy.

On the macro-scale corporate responsibility covers a multitude of issues from companies response to climate change and child labour, accusations of pension mis-selling and exploitation of the Third World.

There is also a grassroots side to all this. Not a week goes by without one of the blue chips announcing a scheme to renovate a school playground or landscape the garden of an old people's home.

High Street bank NatWest, for example, has just announced a £3 million project to improve 450 primary school playgrounds.

The scheme, co-run by charity Learning Through Landscapes in partnership with Groundwork UK, has already helped schools in Seaford and Heathfield. Pupils at The Cross-in-Hand CE Primary School in Heathfield, will benefit from a £4,000 facelift to their playground and will be contributing ideas themselves.

The project was developed to strengthen the ties between bank staff and their communities, with their staff nominating schools they are involved with.

American Express, Brighton and Hove's biggest private employer, is another company that goes to great lengths to "big up" its donations to charity and the community.

It runs recruitment courses with Working Links to help the long-term unemployed get back to work and actively encourages its staff to do voluntary work on company time.

Jo Crockett, Amex's Sussex public affairs and communications officer, has become something of an advocate for corporate social responsibility.

In a recent article she wrote: "Companies should be engaged more widely with their communities because it's a smart business move.

"Business philanthropy, be it financial donations, employee volunteering or in-kind support, should not be something that is viewed as just a 'nice to do' or affordable only for big companies like American Express, but central to how a company sees itself doing business and winning in the marketplace. In other words - part of its DNA."

Staff at electricity and gas supplier EDF Energy have taken part in numerous voluntary projects this year including scrub clearing on the South Downs and gardening at a playgroup.

A lot of this work is facilitated through the Brighton and Hove Business Community Partnership (BCP) which was set up in 1996 to establish links between business and the volunteer sector.

The partnership was the idea of Brighton-based Family Assurance and Brighton and Hove City Council, who set up a steering group involving businesses, statutory and voluntary sector groups.

BT, Southern Water and American Express were the first companies to get on board and, in the same year, national organisation Business in the Community was given a contract to run the partnership.

BCP is now independent of Business in the Community but still has close links to the national organisation which has a core membership of 700 companies, including 75 per cent of the FTSE 100. The BCP is behind the nationwide Community Mark project which awards small to medium-sized local firms which live up to the concept of corporate social responsibility.

Earlier this month four Brighton companies were awarded the kite mark at a ceremony at the Hilton Brighton Metropole hotel which was attended by more than 80 business leaders.

Two architects firms, DRP Architects and RH Partnership, construction company MacConvilles, and Bonett's Estate Agents received the CommunityMark.

There are other projects which suggest businesses have woken up to the fact they impact on people's lives in a big way and should therefore behave responsibly.

Last month, a commitment to help workers in developing countries led to Brighton and Hove being awarded Fairtrade City status.

The sale of Fairtrade items, such as chocolate, cocoa and coffee, ensures a better deal and decent wages for the small producers.

The city was honoured by the Fairtrade Foundation following the achievement of five goals, which included ensuring the products were readily available and raising awareness of the scheme.

Brighton and Hove was the 25th of the UK's 66 cities to be awarded the mark.

Some argue the contribution businesses make to communities is still woefully inadequate and others say, through the taxes they pay and the wealth they create, businesses already do enough.

Whatever the pros and cons the notion of corporate social responsibility has taken hold.

Whether the public will ever believe it is anything other than another means to gain publicity remains to be seen.