Nell and Paul Newman
December 2005 | Conscious Business
Capitalism Meets Idealism
Robber barons and multinationals have given Capitalism a bad name but it doesn’t have to be that way. Entrepreneurs like actor Paul Newman have proven that the “red tooth and claw” of smash-and-grab corporate capitalism can be replaced by a business model that directs profits to needy stakeholders instead of greedy shareholders. Now this movement has a new name: Profit-Donation Capitalism.
The PDC website (profitdonationcapitalism.org) lists more than 50 booming businesses that donate 100 percent of their profit to charities and social causes. The goal: “a kinder, more intelligent utilization of free-market capitalism.” With healthcare in the US becoming more costly and unavailable and with more than 3 billion people on Earth living on less than $3 a day, it’s clear to PDC’s organizers that “conventional capitalism is failing our global village.” PDC hopes to inspire philanthropists, entrepreneurs and leaders to accelerate the creation of thousands of new profit-donating businesses whose revenue will be used to eradicate hunger, illness and poverty worldwide. —Gar Smith
Talk Green to Me, Baby
Wal-mart’s been batting its eyelashes at environmentalists lately. Corn-based packaging? Compact fluorescent light-bulbs? Wal-mart, you’re making us blush! And it’s only getting harder and harder to resist the corporate giant’s siren song. In a speech to a business school last month, Wal-mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. nobly professed, “As one of the largest companies in the world… environmental problems are our problems.”
Wait… what? Is this the same company that’s been killing off small town businesses, denying workers adequate health care and suffocating wetlands with big-box parking lots? Well, yes. “But, c’mon baby, I’ve changed…”
To be fair, the company has changed. That’s partly thanks to bad PR from critics like filmmaker Robert Greenwald who just released the documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. Predictably, the company immediately started promoting Ron Galloway’s knee-jerk response doc, Why Wal-mart Works And Why That Makes Some People Crazy. But some of Wal-mart’s other responses to the negative press have taken critics by surprise.
Lee Scott’s rosy speech introduced some real, measurable green initiatives. The company has pledged to increase the fuel efficiency of their fleet by 25 percent in the next three years and to reduce the waste generated by their US stores by the same proportions. They also plan to introduce organic clothing, use more renewable energy, reduce packaging, raise the labor standards of their suppliers and develop better health care for employees.
What if this is it, the sea change we’ve all been waiting for? Surely, Wal-mart’s hoping we come to that conclusion. But before we take Wal-mart back, we better see some serious results. Heaven knows our endorsement shouldn’t come at a low, low price.
Decide for yourself—read the full transcript of Lee Scott’s recent speech at walmart.com, before following up with the counterpoint at walmartwatch.com or wakeupwalmart.com. —Andi McDaniel
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