A friend recently sent me a NY Times article, Can Burts' Bees Turn Clorox Green, about this true, honest-to-God, home-grown, mom'n'pop enterprise.... that developed into a company worth $913 million -- at least to Clorox, which purchased it last November.
Like Ben & Jerrys, Tom's of Maine and other eponymous leafy green companies (also bought out by larger corporations Unilever and Colgate, respectively), they have a "Greater Good" policy that values environmental responsibility, natural ingredients, animal rights, responsible trade and, yes ladies and gentlemen, employee benefits.
"The premise is that if companies are socially responsible, profit will follow," the article states of Clorox's motive, "[Their] research recently found that 53 percent of consumers planned to buy more eco-friendly products this year and that 47 percent were willing to pay 20 percent to 25 percent premiums for them."
In short, and to my cynical mind: for all their greenspeak, profit is still king. They, like so many companies, are going green not because it's good, or responsible, or will help us and our planet in the long run, but because it's fashionable. And, with current energy prices, it's less costly.
Burt's Bees, Tom's and Ben & Jerry's became the companies they were as a reflection of the values of the people who created them.
But corporate America is created and run by people whose value system revolves around profit. This is not necessarily bad, but it can't go unchecked.
And one way that it can become good is if we, the purchasing public, remember the power of our dollars -- because their professed "values" will always follow and attempt to reflect ours, enabling us to influence these companies in a less profit-centred, more socially responsible direction.
And maybe this influence will last long enough to be entrenched enough in their business method too make it costly to reverse when fashion switches back again...
2 comments:
I much prefer supporting mom and pop enterprises than big businesses. Unfortunately, when facing a limited income, many times one is forced to go for the cheaper big business products. Now, are big businesses able to really care about the environment? No, not unless they start out on a solid green foundation, or THE owner of the business suddenly gets a green heart. I think business will only go green if there is a profit in it (as with Clorox--since people are willing to spend more on green products), or if they are forced to by government strictures. Otherwize, it is as you say, they only care about the buck. Such a mentality is why the world is falling apart as it is.
This is a hot topic, indeed. One of the problems is that when big corporations decide to "go green" they do so with the most minimum standards of organic. I call it, "just one tiny little hop over the organic fence." Still, if everyone jumps on the green trend, whether their motivation is corporate greed or big hearts...it's got to be a good thing that we ingest fewer pesticides. Thanks for raising our awareness in blog-land.
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