From Scrooge to Socially responsible shopper!
Thanks
for receiving the Progress Strategies+ 2016 socially responsible companies list to consider during
your shopping! Like me, you may have
just started shopping. Good luck! As
with last year, I give you the gift of sharing some companies that I support who
are examples of matching the bottom-line with socially responsible
practices.
Before
I share, allow me to give a confession: I
finally got into the commercial Christmas spirit! Last week I stood in the middle of the mall
for 15 minutes reading the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) annual reports
of two major retailers to double-check their improvements in environmental
stewardship, community giving and wage and benefits for workers----before
making my few purchases.
Recently
as I was downloading some iTunes songs from Apple, I looked into the company’s CSR
practices. I was already impressed by CEO
Tim Cook’s step to hire Lisa Jackson---former head of the Environmental Protection
Agency---to run point on environmental stewardship and social initiatives.
Apple
has been leading in green energy. All most all of their U.S. production and 87% of their Global production is powered
by renewable energy. They are so focused
on this area that when they were challenged by some with the presumption that
such focus was not good for business, Mr. Cook responded by stating “we do a
lot of things for reasons besides the profit motive” while recommending that
any stock holders who thought differently should sell.
Wow! While there is still room for improvement, I
proceeded to get my songs from Chance The Rapper and Elaine Elias. Keep it
coming Apple.
CSR is a great glue driving free market
relationships
I
am proudly in the number of socially responsible conscious consumers who find
it very important to spend or invest in companies that have values, policies
and business practices that benefit society----from environmental and
charitable giving to ethical labor practices.
Such CSR demonstrations impact not only how we value the merging of
profit and good behavior, but those activities also define our ethical free
market interactions between businesses, customers, consumers, entrepreneurs and
employees.
For
instance, when I buy North Face (I need new gloves---anyone!) outdoor products
for quality and durability, I know that my dollars are being used to increase
the company’s improvements of the people aspect of the Triple Bottom Line. North Face has been focused on reducing their
water footprint or usage and other ecological activities to meet environmental
standards. The support by all North
Face’s customers keeps the company accountable to these goals.
They
are also making improvements in their global compliance areas such as fair
wages and benefits, women’s rights, anti-discrimination and respecting the
right to free association and collective bargaining in the workplace. Plus, I feel a bit warmer (emotionally)
knowing that the company respects ethical treatment of animals as much as
people. Evidence of this is that one of
my Down filled vests meets the Responsible Down Standard to prevent practices
of live-feather plucking and other humane treatment of animals.
I
shared this important factor with a local company recently. As I discussed the CSR and inclusion services
that Progress Strategies+ could
provide them, “all businesses must remain attentive to the many potential customers
that are driven by the CSR practices.
Within every demographic are untapped and sometimes unrealized customers
who want companies to do more than just make money.”
Take
the Reputation Institute’s survey, conducted for Forbes Magazine, to study
47,000 consumers that ranked the reputations of multinational companies. The study researched how consumers prioritized
the importance of corporate reputation factors such as CSR and corporate
citizenship---and how those factors drive their perceptions of a company’s products,
goods and services.
The
study found that 42% of how people feel about a company is based on the firm’s
CSR practices. Those consumers were
asked to give evaluations on questions such as “Is the company a good corporate
citizen---supporting good causes and the environment? Is it a responsibility-run company---behaving
ethically and being transparent? Is it an appealing place to work?” The perceptions are correlated with consumer
support. Companies such as Microsoft,
Google, Walt Disney and others in the Forbes The 10
Companies With The Best CSR Reputations also do pretty well with
profitability.
The Progress Strategies+ List of Companies---for
your list, too?
These
following companies are not on that list because they are not
multinationals. However, I wanted to
share a list of major companies that I support just in case you have not
finished your holiday shopping. I will do
a local business version in the future.
For now, based on my personal values and Progress Strategies+ CSR Client Best Practices here are some
companies to consider on your growing or shrinking shopping list:
1. SoapBoxSoaps: This is a really nice company with good
soaps----along with a good price ($3.99) to match their mission. With each purchase of a bar of soap, a bar is
given to programs assisting individuals and communities nationally and
internationally that lack access, safe products, materials and resources for
hygiene. The company provides other
supports to causes that address health and wellness.
There is a code on each soap wrapper that
you can enter in the company’s website, allowing you to locate and learn about the
program or initiative your donation helped.
For example, a purchasing-to-donation may support a program helping
Ebola survivors receive psychological counseling support and education
assistance in soap-making and small business skills. Purchases also provide contributions of critical
personal hygiene products to food banks given that federal food assistance
funds cannot be used for non-food items.
Good soap supports good causes that the company is in partnership with
from Miami to India.
2. Patagonia:
Like North Face, this is a company that is easy to support. They are solid with high quality and
resilient outdoor gear for the suburbanite or skilled mountain climber. Keep them on your shopping list. I was fine coming into the cold from the yard
one day with my vest (I love vests). I
got warmer and happier sitting down and watching NBC Nightly News story featuring
another great aspect of Patagonia’s social responsibility.
The evening feature highlighted the
company’s 30-year initiative providing on-site child care for employees. Among
the benefits of the program is allowing employees to stay connected with their
children at times throughout the workday.
Another benefit is that it has led to 100 percent of women choosing to
return to the workplace after childbirth.
Just when I thought that was enough, the news segment featured an
employee who works for Patagonia-----spending time with his visiting mom who
once worked there and had him at the day care center!
3. FairLife:
Okay, you are probably not going to buy someone milk for Christmas. What about when you have your holiday
party? I picked up FairLife at a local
store and appreciated the pledge and business model of producing good milk
(chocolate has been my favorite) from cows who are well-fed and treated in a
humane fashion of stress-free conditions within a closed processing system. That system is one in which the production of
crops, feeding of animals, processing, bottling and sell of the product can be
traced back to the place it was made.
Sometimes ethical standards get mixed
up and misplaced among different dairies and places. Such values are not surprising given that the founder was a former cow veterinarian. A good milk next to Santa’s cookies.
4. North Face:
See the above. And if you have an
extra Down filled vest in red or blue please let me know!
5. Apple:
See the above. Plus, I am keeping
them on my list as Mr. Cook continues to help improve technology at public
schools through a $100 million commitment to ConnectED and donations of iPads
and Macs to schools---many of them with disadvantaged students of Hispanic,
Black, Native American, Alaskan Native or Asian heritage.
I
could name more but simply wanted to share good corporate citizens that I have
regularly or recently supported. If you
have also engaged in conscious consumer shopping or are new to it, I truly
thank you. We need all of us in the
market supporting companies as they connect money with mission to make positive
social and environmental change.
A dip in the merriment for mission?
There
is more to be done with our decisions and dollars! According to Good.Must.Grow and the fourth
annual Conscious Consumer Spending Index, there has been a small slip in the two-year
climb in social responsibility among consumers.
Good.Must.Grow,
a socially responsible marketing firm, polled thousands of Americans this year regarding
their conscious consumer spending practices.
This year’s study found that 31 percent of Americans are planning to
spend more with companies who are socially responsible, slightly down from 32
percent from last year.
Additionally,
60 percent confirmed the importance of buying from socially responsible
companies, down from 64 percent in 2015.
In addition, 64 percent reported making purchases from socially
responsible companies, compared to 65 percent in 2015. Some factors contributing to the small
decrease could be prices of those products.
That is very understandable and I remain appreciative that while the
practice of such spending dipped, the priority of it among people did not.
The spirit of socially responsible spending decisions
in support of socially responsible companies cannot weaken. Our communities, causes and ability to have
companies help us meet social challenges depend on this spirit just as much as
profit, investments and prosperity depend on it.
It
is in that spirit that I wish you a great holiday season full of progress for
you, your work and our planet. Happy
shopping.
Eric K. Foster
is principal of Progress Strategies+, a project management firm
serving corporations, businesses and organizations. Progress Strategies+ also specializes in four
social responsibility client project areas----Diversity & Inclusion,
Corporate Social Responsibility, Public Policy and Advocacy and Grant
Management. Eric is a fan of outdoor
vests.
