Corporate Responsibility OR a Disposable Society

Frankly I am amazed almost daily by the breakthroughs companies are making to create more responsible and greener products and humanitarian services.  I am not talking about superficial PR to re-label factory made food as organic or other advertising buzzwords designed to mislead us.  Rather I am impressed that global companies are making genuine progress to reinvent the future.

I have been most recently impressed when I visited the big financial firm ING to learn of their aggressive micro-credit business in India and their European car leasing operation that buys carbon credit for every mile driven to make their auto fleets carbon neutral.  I am inspired that General Electric is making organic lights that are nearly 10 times more effective than every light sold today.  Even if you’re not a raging environmentalist, you’ve got to be impressed with how companies are paying more attention to making more things more energy efficient.

The reason these trends are persisting is that consumers, especially younger ones, are demanding products that are more responsible.  Companies that are responding to this growing consumer demand will continue to grow while those who don’t will fade away.

Why General Motors is Failing

That’s one of the main reasons General Motors is sucking air.  My brother-in-law once owned a GM Geo Metro, a dog of a car if there ever was one.  As the tin and can aged he noticed that the price of parts was beginning to exceed the value of the car.  Finally a mechanic told him, “Hey, the Geo was designed as a disposable car and guess what, it’s time to junk it!”  A disposable car.  Hmmm.

A Disposable Society

In the 1950’s the big American car company accountants came up with the brilliant idea of planned obsolescence that required engineers to design parts to fail at 50, 60, or 70 thousand miles.  This, they were told, would increase their downstream parts business.  What a tragic idea.  But this has been the mindset of leadership over the past 40 years—create one big disposable society.  Disposable cars, disposable marriages and fast food that has as much nourishment as the cardboard package it comes in.  Have we gotten so seduced by “new” things that we have lost sight of the quality of our lives and the strength of our society?

Americans are Rethinking Their Addiction to Waste

Americans are a resilient people.  We seem to have un-ending ingenuity.  So inventors, engineers, and increasingly companies are re-thinking their addiction to waste.  They are doing so because we are demanding it and our children are demanding it.

So what’s the best thing we can do? We should all be fully engaged, noisy consumers.  We need to demand genuine quality, real nutrition, and yes environmentally responsible products.  We should demand personalized, low-stress service to be treated like a person instead of a problem.  The louder our voices are in the market place, the more it will change.  I am seeing this first hand.  Of course progress is slow and imperfect, but at least there is progress.  Progress caused by us.

So what do you think?  Am I into something or is my view to rosy?  What’s the best thing you can think of to drive business to become more responsible?

ChangeING

I just finished a two-day leadership workshop for ING, the giant Dutch global bank, insurance, and investment company.  They were pretty calm despite the carnage of the financial services industry over the past six months.  It’s hard to rattle the Dutch.  They’ve endured everything:  World Wars, depression, and the great tulip bubble.  Their mantra is “steady, steady…now breathe.”  It’s a refreshing change from the shrieks and howls of Wall Street crybabies.

What struck me about ING is that they are on another planet (literally) about Corporate Social Responsibility than most American firms.  Just go to their homepage (ING.com) and click on Corporate Responsibility and prepare to be impressed.  As a huge international concern with 135,000 employees they are dedicated to educating the illiterate of our world with their Chances for Children program.  They hooked up with UNICEF to provide volunteers in places like rural Brazil, India and Ethiopia.  They are a serious player in microfinance, and they participate in just about every environmental heal-the-earth campaign around the world  (The FTSE 4 Good Index, Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the Carbon Disclosure Project, The European Academy of Business in Society, Equator Principles, Global Reporting Initiative, Oikocredit, Round Table on Climate Change, Amnesty Round Table on Human Rights, UN Global Compact, and several more.)

They also have a great start at integrating sustainable strategies to spur market growth and distinguish their brand.  In Europe they lease cars that rolls in fees to offset the cars CO2 emissions.  But their biggie is their social and environmental risk policies that they apply to every lending decision.  Loans will only be authorized if the purpose of the loan meets social and environmental criteria.  Huh?  I am sure like all big companies ING is not perfect at implementing its lofty ideals.  But that’s not the point.  What is amazing is the speed of the sustainability revolution.  When huge global organizations create policies and strategies aimed at creating a sustainable future we are witnessing the first energy pulses of a massive wave of change.  And it’s only the beginning.  But at least it is.