In October 2008, SustainAbility was forced to do something novel in its 22 year history – cancel a research project. Under our Global Reporters program, known for its biennial benchmark of sustainability reporting, we had intended to deliver an action-oriented research project called “Bridging the Divides” that would attempt to improve the flow and quality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information between companies and mainstream (i.e. non-SRI) investors. While in hindsight we certainly picked an inopportune time to engage investors given the global financial crisis, our research and conversations with the two groups demonstrated just how wide the divides really are between 1) investors and companies and 2) between investor relations (IR) and corporate responsibility (CR) functions within companies. This article is both an account of our adventure and a call for action.