Corporate responsibility

One of those damn Coca-Cola ads with polar bears and penguins ran last night, which led me to wonder what the hell Coca-Cola was doing about global warming, so I did a search on Google and ended up on Greenpeace where I learned that 6 years ago the brilliant folks at Ad Busters were wondering the same thing and mocking Coca-Cola for it, which helped push Coke to curb their CFC waste and now they’re receiving medals for doing good things for the environment. Cool. Also on Coke’s site, some seriously bad videos that have been submitted for a contest.

Then I actually clicked on the banner ad on Greenpeace’s site. That brought me to this page. I usually hate going to sites with lots of Flash that’s designed to distract you from getting to the information you want (best worst example: Comcast). Maybe it was the statistics on the site, stats which I’d never seen reported in the mainstream press about the Japanese attitude about whaling, or maybe I’d been hypnotized by the flickering light of the computer screen after staring at it for too long, but I kept reading and clicked further to… another video competition, this one sponsored by Greenpeace. This is the, ahem, tip of the iceberg for video competitions.

Still, it’s great to see that some corporations like Coke are responding to the threat of global warming. It’s not just good for the planet and a moral imperative, but it’s also good for business. As Yvon Chouinard pointed out, every little thing they did to follow their mission statement to work towards improving the environment also improved the bottom line. The effort boosts employee morale and attracts other like-minded employees who are willing to work harder because they’re supporting something profound.

Last night I read Jeff Tietz’s article in Rolling Stone about Smithfield pork producers. Smithfield is a company that lacks any moral fiber. And I’m sure they’re not alone. How long will companies like Smithfield be able to operate under the “old school” practice of not giving a damn about anything other than profit? I’m not vegan or vegitarian, but after reading that article about the unsanitary conditions, excessive use of antibiotics, and environmental disaster that is Smithfield, I will be avoiding pork for quite some time.