If you’re interested in both business ethics and environmental sustainability (as I am), read this article on Triple Pundit that shows how corruption can degrade our environment, citing a few among many examples. They didn’t even mention many well-known cases, such as the lead-poisoned toys and adulterated baby formula from China a few years ago.
Do yourself, your customers, and your bottom line a favor: remember to be both green AND ethical.
It’s been a good year for recognition of my work for a better world. In October, I was inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame (View pictures and read the transcript here.)
And then last night, I received notification that I (as the human face of GreenAndProfitable.com) am the very first business in the country to be certified by Green America at the Gold level (which was a fairly arduous process involving several reviews of an extensive questionnaire covering socially responsible investing, supply chain, commitment to social and economic justice, and, of course, environmental benchmarks, among other things).
I’m thrilled. After 40 years in the environmental world, it is nice to have people notice.
In honor of the push to bank local by Green America, the push to buy local by Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and because business bankers want to see business plans and December is National Write a Business Plan Month, I present this guest post from Tim Chen of NerdWallet, on sustainable banking.
Take it away, Tim:
Seems like everywhere you turn these days people are promoting something green. From locovore diets, to green building and green business, there’s a big push for more sustainable living, and a certain trendiness that goes along with it. Chances are if you’re reading this blog, you’re already in the know. Maybe you have your own sustainable business venture, and you’re looking for tips and ideas to make it work. Here’s one for you: Green banking.
Green banking means different things to different people. Maybe you switched to online statements, and you’re darned proud of it. If so, good for you. If not, check it out. Going paperless with your banking is one of the easiest ways to give the environment a little help, and just about every bank offers the service.
But there are other ways to green your banking, and options you may not have heard of. Take, for example, New Resource Bank in San Francisco. The bank only offers accounts to green businesses, and allows accountholders to network with each other. New resource composts and recycles in an effort to meet their goal of 95% waste diversion away from landfills, and every swipe of your debit card earns money for their nonprofit partners.
There’s also GreenChoice Bank, which is based in Illinois. The bank targets their lending to the sustainable business community, and half of the management is accredited in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Houston-based Green Bank will donate $50 to one of a list of local environmental organizations when you open a business or personal money market or checking account. The bank headquarters are LEED Gold-Certified, with minimized resource consumption and rainwater irrigation.
If these banks aren’t in your area, don’t despair! Green America offers a list of community development banks and credit unions, as well as a campaign to “break up with your mega-bank.” Switching to a greener bank can help you take your business sustainability one step further. It will also put you in good company––who knows, you might even make valuable connections with likeminded entrepreneurs.
Tim Chen is the CEO of NerdWallet, an unbiased resource for the best business credit cards.
60 Minutes reports that not a single bankster has been prosecuted on criminal charges over violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (a/k/a Sarbox)—the corpoate ethics law much-ballyhooed by reformers and much-belittled by corporations (on whom it imposed a significant paperwork burden).
As the TV program documents, there’s plenty of evidence of criminal wrongdoing, and there are people who would be perfectly willing to testify. Why the failure of will?
Could it perhaps be related to that other failure: failure to prosecute the leaders of George W. Bush’s administration who lied their way into two wars, passed billions of dollars in sweetheart deals, stole two presidential elections (and likely a few key races in Congress), and approved a regulatory climate that let the banks and polluters run amok?
Just wondering out loud. What do you think?
Must-read article by Eliot Spitzer on how banks defrauded the government into giving a whopping $7.7 trillion in secret loans, with no conditions, under false pretenses. That is half the entire GDP!
And that’s OUR money, folks! Bush’s “regulators” let these deals happen with no scrutiny of the banks, and nobody was scrutinizing the regulators.
“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” (author unknown)
“Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.” (The Talmud)
Here’s a company that’s been selling hand-made recycled art papers since 1998 (think about really cool and classy invitations)—and has just developed a new paper line using post-brewery barley as one of the ingredients—and being smart marketers, billing it as the first beer paper. They sponsored this morning’s HARO, and thus, I learned about them. I clicked over half expecting some very rough page put up by a few carousing fratboys–boy, was I wrong! These people love the earth and love what they do, which is obvious on every page of their site.
The firm is called Twisted Limb, out of Bloomington, Indiana. I love their sustainability page, too.
Fascinating article by Marc Stoiber on how Patagonia’s latest environmental initiatives tells customers not to buy what they don’t need, and to make what they do buy last forever. And if it doesn’t last forever, Patagonia will take it back and recycle it for you.
It may be counter to common logic, but Stoiber thinks this will increase sales, and tells why. And I agree, for reasons I cite in my latest book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green—that caring and an envirnmental/soial justice agenda build fans and build the brand.
Patagonia is always a great company to watch and learn from, and this initiative does not surprise me.
One of the most exciting things about the green movement lately is the way it’s become so mainstream. After some 40 years in this movement, I am deeply gratified that every company I can think of is taking steps toward sustainability. Some, like Marks & Spencer in the UK and believe it or not, Walmart in the US (and worldwide)—a company not exactly swarming with treehuggers—have practically made it into a religion.
In my talks and interviews, I almost always mention Walmart, because that company is heavily driven by the profit motive—and has found it extremely profitable to lower expenses by paying attention to sustainability, and at the same time create new profit centers. For instance, Walmart is selling truckloads of organic food to people who would never set foot in a Whole Foods. While I still have many other issues with the company, ranging from labor practices and supplier policies to siting and closed-store-reuse, on sustainabiity, I have only praise.
And if bottom-line-driven, NON-treehugger company like Walmart can build a green path to prosperity, what holds the rest of us back?
It’s been a great discussion the past few days about whether and when it makes sense to work with companies that don’t share your values. I promised to add my own views after we’d gotten some comments, and thus, this post—which I wrote before receiving any of the comments, but chose to hold back on posting:
Here’s my take, as a long-time peace/environmental activist who also writes about how to leverage social change through business. You have these options:
1. Be a purist and refuse any tainted money or tainted partnerships, defining taint to mean that the company is in some way involved in things you disagree with.
2. “Separation of powers,” where you will work with a company that has dirty hands, but only work on the clean-hands aspects of that company.
3. Use the partnership to actively push the company toward more progressive stances, and eventually to abandon the actions that caused you to look askance in the first place.
I’ve evolved on this issue over time. In the 70s, I’m pretty sure I’d have been a #1. And been out in the streets with the protestors. But that was before I saw how the business world can not only change itself, but become a fulcrum for change in the wider society. These days, I’m at least a #2 and when possible, a #3. I’m even in dialogue with an outfit that does seminars for utility companies—and I told them I would not assist with anything that promoted nuclear (and if they hire me to present, I will definitely be using my bully pulpit to push the #3-style agenda to the utilities attending the conference).
But I do think there might be companies (or governments) whose philosophy is so opposed to mine that I would still be a number 1, still refuse to get my hands dirty.
I also recognize that sustainability is a path, and we are all somewhere on the path. I am not sure you could find a person who is living 100% sustainably. Even my very self-sufficient 90-year-old friend who lives in a mountaintop cabin she and her late husband built themselves, with no electricity or running water, grows most of her own food, and keeps her income below the taxable level—creates carbon emissions with her woodstove.
I think a great example is Walmart. I don’t choose to shop there, because I oppose its policies on labor issues, community development impact, predatory pricing, and a host of other areas. At the same time, I have publicly lauded Walmart, many times, for its groundbreaking, deep, systemic attention to sustainability. And I point out that Walmart is not a company of tree-huggers, but of executives looking to maximize profit. I’m willing to publicly praise Walmart’s ability make and save boatloads of money through enormous initiatives to use less energy and to introduce organic foods/green products to customers who would *never* set foot in a Whole Foods–even while choosing to put my own shopping dollars elsewhere.
I discuss this kind of conundrum a bit in my latest book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green.
On one of the green discussion groups, someone raised the question whether it’s appropriate to work with a company whose mission is at odds with your values—on the parts where your values intersect. So, for example, would a pacifist environmentalist work with a military contractor on a sustainability project?
The discussion came out of this New York Times article about the conflict between green purists and green pragmatists about working with military contractor Lockheed Martin.
I have a very definite opinion on this, and will post it over the weekend—but I’d like to see what others think. Will you please post a comment, below?