Hill+Knowlton Strategies‘ sustainability and CSR practice has launched an integrated reporting tool that brings together financial, environmental, social, and governance data together into one form.

The firm has partnered with Harvard Business School professor Robert Eccles and his firm Glenelg Partners on the new offering. Eccles’ research has found that companies that have taken big steps in the areas of sustainability and good governance do better financially in the long run, both for themselves and for investors. As such, this tool is being touted as a way to improve the financial performance of those who use it.

“Investors find less risk in more transparent companies because there is less uncertainty about their ability to deliver expected financial performance,” Eccles says in a statement.

Robert Ludke, SVP of H+K’s D.C. office will lead this new service and Eccles will advise.

Starting today, Hill & Knowlton is Hill + Knowlton Strategies, a rebranding that the firm says highlights the strategic communications counsel that it provides. John W. Hill launched H&K in 1927 in Cleveland. Today, the company is led by Jack Martin, global chairman and CEO. He assumed that role January 1 of this year.

The rebrand has been in the works for a year and includes a new website and a big investment in digital and research capabilities. For more info, check out the video above.

Joshua Lamel has joined Hill & Knowlton as the firm’s tech lead in Washington D.C. As SVP and the D.C. practice leader, he’ll be working with new and existing clients.

Lamel joins from J2 Public Strategies, a lobbying and government relations firm that he founded. He has also worked at the trade association TechAmerica, serving for a time as SVP of commercial policy and government affairs. And he worked in government as chief of staff for former Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL) and legislative counsel for Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

In a statement announcing the new hire, Hadley Wilkins, H&K’s U.S. tech practice director, called technology one of the firm’s “fastest growing sectors in the U.S.”

Details weren’t exactly forthcoming, but Hill & Knowlton has confirmed that the agency is “restructuring” its research practice group.

According to Lori Hamamoto, H&K’s director of communications, there is now a “greater emphasis on primary research to better serve clients, something we can now provide internally.” That work was previously outsourced.

There have been “a few people who have left due to the restructuring,” but Hamamoto would not confirm names or numbers. The firm has always provided secondary research and will continue to do so.

When asked what prompted the research group changes, Hamamoto said with changes in leadership, there have been “across the board” shifts to “improve the company.” There have been a number of developments at the agency — new practice groups and staffers among them — over recent months.

Among the latest sports news, Chad Ochocinco is going to the Patriots. Photo: Jim Rogash/Getty Images

“It wasn’t that long ago that fan and media access to athletes came through sponsorships,” said Ben Trounson, SVP, director of marketing communications at Hill & Knowlton here in the U.S. “That was one of the main conduits. If you fast-forward just five years, fans get access to these athletes through Twitter.”

This is just one of the major changes impacting sports marketing and PR. With a seemingly neverending stream of sports news over the past few weeks — the NFL lockout, women’s World Cup, players breaking the law — we decided to speak with a couple of experts in this area to get a sense of some of the trends and major issues. As evidenced from the quote above, digital communications is definitely on top of the list.

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Hill & Knowlton has launched a global sports marketing and sponsorship practice, to be run by the MD of the sports marketing division in the UK, Andy Sutherden. He will continue to work out of the London office and hang on to his MD title.

H&K has worked with sports clients for more than 15 years, including six sponsors of the coming London 2012 Olympics. According to the firm, H&K earned more than £3 million in revenues from the U.K. sports practice in 2010, a 44 percent increase.

Chris Preuss has joined Hill & Knowlton as an EVP serving on WPP‘s automotive team in Dearborn, MI.

He was most recently the VP of global comms at General Motors and president of GM’s OnStar subsidiary. He worked with the company as it made its way through bankruptcy and restructuring. While at GM, he also held leadership positions for European communications, comms for Cadillac, among others.

At H&K, he’ll spend most of his time working with WPP on the Ford account, focusing on global product communications.

The Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA) has chosen Hill & Knowlton as its AOR after a competitive review. MBVCA is setting out to promote the area as a place for both tourists and businesses.

The firm will conduct outreach to consumer and travel media, target events, and create business and corporate communications programs.

“With its extensive presence in the US and internationally, H&K was a natural choice for us. As a destination that relies heavily on leisure tourism and business groups, the agency’s ability to network and leverage its global relationships is crucial to the growth of brand ‘Miami Beach,’” Elsie Howard, chair of the MBVCA said in a press release statement.

H&K has a Miami office, which will be leading the account alongside the New York office.

Claire Koeneman has been named EVP and U.S. leader for Hill & Knowlton financial comms practice. Koeneman previously spent 17 years with the Financial Relations Board (FRB) working on crisis communications, M&A, bankruptcies, and other areas of financial communications. She was president of the firm when she made the move to H&K.

Koeneman will be based in Chicago and report to Dan Bartlett, US CEO and president.

Keep America Beautiful and its firm Hill & Knowlton have launched a new campaign “Littering is Wrong Too” that moves away from the iconic crying Native American PSA and adds Facebook and Twitter components to encourage 18- to 34-year-olds not to be such litterbugging jerks.

Online, visitors talk about what’s wrong, always with the reminder that “littering is wrong too.” Offline, the message will be posted on billboards, t-shirts, and other materials that will drive traffic to the online sites.

According to the press release, U.S. roads collect more than 51 billion pieces of trash each year and litter clean up costs businesses, governments, and others about $11.5 billion annually.