Product Questioning
By | Sep 22, 2008
Now that people are paying increasing attention to social and environmental issues surrounding products, ethics seem to be part of the spin of every company.
“Hello, is your company socially responsible?”
“Thank you for asking”
“Well yes… um… and..?”
“Well, our primary objective is to eliminate poverty and pollution worldwide. We are single handedly achieving that through the manufacture of this plastic novelty item. It is outlined in our pre-prepared 7 page response that we send out to any inquiry that has the word ‘ethic’ or environment’ in it.”
SO, what can we really find out? What do we ask? I’d like to hear some practical approaches that people have.
Here is an initial suggestion: Firstly, ask about workers right to collective bargaining and union representation (as per 2 of the eight core conventions of the ILO: conventions 87 and 98). And secondly, asking about the traceability of supply chains which insists on accountability from source.
Any simplifications or alternative suggestions?
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Comments
Anne
September 25th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
It’s pretty tricky stuff, near impossible to get any satisfactory answer I think (sorry bout the cynicism).
I’d say the best approach is to not buy the plastic novelty item in the first place?!!
Has anyone out there actually tried to take these questions further than just asking the sales assistant?
awojtas
October 5th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Companies won’t care if you call and ask about their ethics. You won’t get decent answers - because you don’t represent anything financial to the majority of them, other than increased compliance costs typically.
If you were a million consumers, then it’d be different.
Not only that, but
a) there are so many questions to ask that could be missed. Do they dispose of their IT equipment properly? How far do workers travel to the office?
b) there are many many companies, an organised effort would be needed…
Here’s an idea - what about starting a local community-driven website that lists NZ companies matched with key ethical and eco criteria, backed by citations from web or trad media alongside opinion posts, that produce a rating for the company.
Here’s a few Intl- or US-focused sites that could be used for inspiration:
http://dotherightthing.com/
http://www.ethiscore.org/
http://www.corporatecritic.org/
Jolyon
October 6th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Surely your not suggesting that the only sensible alternative to starting up a corporate watch dog site is to do nothing because the company won’t care? Ah… I cling to threads of hope as it is.
Is there really nothing in the idea that if enough of us small guys ask the same question that will eventually translate to something in the mind of those coming up with the company strategy.
I would like to believe that although there are a million issues that need to be addressed before a companty can be considered ethical, any one issue is a start. For example; It is great that there are so many Fair Trade coffee stores in Dunedin. None of them sell fair trade chocolate yet. There is no awareness of chocolate issues at all in general cafe goers. That doesn’t stop me asking for fair trade coffee, nor does the lack of awarness of cash crop bannana practices from Dole stop me pushing for chocolate.
The other side to finding any more sensible question to ask is to asist the direction of the enthusiasm of yonger generation consumers who have the fervent rampant thing going on. Help them get a little more specific without getting totally overwhelmed.
Love the idea of a NZ specific product / company web site though. Imagine that would be a lot of work to research set up and maintain. Would a wiki style thing work or would it need more direct control to maintain credibility?