capitalism4good

Fair Trade clothing from Fair Indigo

Sorry for the long lapse... somehow I thought that recovering from surgery took a day... very delusional of me, I know!

In any case, in my first foray outside the house & hospital, I complimented a friend on a very stylish white shirt she was wearing, and she told me it was from Fair Indigo - a fair-trade retailer that works with individual factories and seems to have a very carefully-considered philosophy, much of which comes through in their About page.

They support worker-owned cooperatives, create meaningful relationships with owners who share their values, follow a "trust but verify" approach that includes surprise inspections, and use not only their own visits but auditing by the non-profit Verite to ensure that conditions meet their expectations.

Body Shop founder dies

Sad news for the sustainability community:  Anita Roddick, one of the more famous names in corporate sustainability, passed away after suffering a brain hemorrhage last Sunday. 

Roddick has been credited with introducing values of fair trade and animal rights to mainstream consumers through her line of beauty products.

The Body Shop was recently bought by L'Oreal, to the ire of many animal rights activists, but is being operated independently of the larger corporation.

More about Roddick can be found in this BBC article.

An opportunity to fight for shareholder rights

Just as shareholder resolutions are becoming a widely-known and powerful mechanism for ethical investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is proposing a major change to the system.  According to Domini, a firm that researches and advocates for socially responsible investment, the  SEC proposal "could virtually eliminate shareholder resolutions." 

See the Domini letter here, and the full SEC proposal here.

To give some background: One of the classic arguments against including social and environmental goals as part of corporate strategy is that managers lack the right to do because they owe a "fiduciary duty" to shareholders - a duty that is generally interpreted as maximizing profits. 

Playing a Shell Game with CSR

I do read, and share, the occasional article that is critical of CSR and of environmental/social sustainability in general. It's important to understand other people's worldviews, and a significant chunk of the populace thinks CSR is bunk - or worse, a doomsday scenario for our economy.

However, my open-mindedness does not extend to arguments that are as poorly reasoned or deceptive as the latest installment of anti-CSR diatribe at Townhall.com.  Here is the introductory paragraph:

"Today Corporate Social Responsibility is synonymous with environmental responsibility. Environmental responsibility, of course, means that a company accepts that global warming is occurring; man (particularly modern business) is the primary reason why global warming is occurring; the consequences of global warming will be disastrous for planet Earth; and consequently, businesses should be willing to sacrifice anything in the name of environmental responsibility."