The Informed Consumer

These days I've had the opportunity to take a really interesting course at school: Sustainable Business Practices.  Now, this may seem like a very normal course for someone to take - but for me it's something special because as a hospitality student we don't have much opportunity to study things beyond specifically hotels.  After working on a very interesting project of analysing the corporate responsibility efforts of different brands from Disney to Patagonia all the way to South West Airlines, it made me think of how many businesses are actually participating in CSR movements.

This entire blog is based off of corporate social responsibility - used in a personal manner, yet I have never thought that the solutions to the problems we are facing is using this personal power in conjunction with companies CSR programs.  Let me explain my train of thought, basically I believe if people and businesses could both work together to improve corporate social responsibilty many of the problems of polluting and social injustices in the world would start to alleviate - not neccesarily go away but at least improve.  However, my mistake was in understanding the role of the business and the role of the person.  Personally we can all make efforts to lower our carbon footprint and treat others the way we would like to be treated.  However, this makes a very small impact (but it is still important - so continue doing what you're doing to better the world).  What businesses are doing though, is making CSR changes to their business based on the markets demands.  They are not making 100% of the difference they could if they solely reduced their carbon footprint out of sheer good will; and that makes sense because corporations act in accordance to the market and what makes business sense.

This is where I had been going wrong.  I thought that my efforts were mine alone and that the small actions would add up sooner or later.  While this might be true, a bigger affect I might have had was being lost through all of my irrisponsible purchases.  Of course when I went to the store I was choosing the cheapest item - who wouldn't?  The project made me realize something though, not all businesses were made the same.  If you were to compare Patagonia with any other type of cheap clothing manufacturer there is a huge difference between social policies protecting workers to environmental policies trying to use sustainable resources.  Its hard to imagine that just one purchase at a responsible store versus a cheap vendor would make a large difference, just as using less shower water might not make an extremely large difference in water consumption.  However, this is not true.

When you support a responsible business, these businesses are being supported by your money to continue doing the right thing.  This can affect many many people all the way to secondary suppliers of these businesses.  Of course, one purchase is small but it has two effects built into one.  First, it is giving money to those businesses that are acting responsibly, but secondly, it takes away money that would have gone to potentially irrisponsible businesses.  This positively impacts the market two fold because it allows responsibilty to flourish all the while encouraging those who are irrisponsible to change to be responsible making it a market demand.

So, I am trying to find ways to find which businesses are responsible and which are not.  I would like to (as much as possible) find a way to be an informed consumer.  At the moment the best way I have found is to see which companies are being transparent.  A good method of rating this is by looking at a businesses G4 report lead by the Global Reporting Initiative.  It will detail everything from their human rights support all the way to their environmental policies hiding nothing in between such as supply chain forced labor and child labor practicies and numbers.  Although these are quite bulky reports, they are quite useful when trying to make a decision on who to use as a supplier, who to invest in, and now who to spend your money on.

I know its a long shot to evaluate every single purchase made, so thats why I'm proposing a sort of comprimise.  Anytime we are going to make a rather large purchase, look first, be informed, and choose the more responsible company to support with your money.  The impact can make a bigger difference than our other efforts, and its rather simple in comparison.  No one is perfect and can monitor each and every transaction, but that one could make the difference between a company deciding to implement a more comprehensive CSR stragey - which can affect thousands upon thousands of people down the line.

Let me know what you think about being an informed consumer? Do you think it has such a large effect, and if so which are your favorite responsible businesses?

Too young? Think again...

This phrase gets passed around over and over and over - with little to no meaning: you're just too young.  What exactly does a person's age have to do with what they are able or not able to do?  Being young does not necessarily mean that you are immature.  There are actually quite a few young people that I would say are more mature than their older counterparts.

The issue with this phrase is not that I want younger people to do stuff that is meant for more mature people, but it is denying a large group of people the opportunity to prove their worthiness.  This comes in the way of denying young people key responsibility roles, all the way to rejecting them for jobs simply because they are "too young".  If they were given this chance and failed - then yes, it's fair to say they were not suitable for the position, but this has nothing to do with their age.

This doesn't just affect the youth of today but it affects the generation below them as well.  Young kids are coddled more than ever before, less trusted, and overall shut off from opportunities that they might have been able to take in earlier days.  This is working against them, not for them - the more protected they are when they are young means the more unprepared they will be when they have to enter the real world.  Mistakes are what help you learn, if they are never able to have these opportunities; they would be severely lacking in life experience by the time they reach adulthood.

What is my suggestion?  I suggest that we should start taking more chances on young people.  What's the worst that happens? They make a mistake or they fail?  Failure is an important part of learning - and if it is really that bad you can fire them/ take away the opportunity.  However, no one ever thinks about WHAT IF they SUCCEED!  Think about how much you could be adding to their life by giving them this simple chance.

This idea wasn't sparked by just one situation of someone saying "you're too young" to me or someone else I know - it is about a continuous trend I've observed these past few years.  Some of these "adults" are going so far as to suggest that young people (above 18 but under 25) should not have rights as an adult, but instead as a child.  Let's stand against this lack of trust in our youth and give them a chance instead.

Let me know what you think about this situation below!

One Man...

How would you define humanity if all it contained was one man?  What would this one man's power become?

Be conscientious of our precious world - and make a difference!

The reality is that one man alone cannot do much for the world - but luckily for us in 2015 there are 7 billion people on this earth that can be inspired by just one man to make a change.  This is what I want you as a reader to realize - that with your solitary action to make a change that you will inspire others to make a difference.  It might be a slow process, maybe only one person joins for years but in the end if you have just one follower that means already you have the power of 2 just by one action and support.

This blog is meant for those of us who are wishing to make a difference by creating personal social responsibility plans. Our solitary actions can influence others to make the same sort of change.  It doesn't even need to be radical, just a small change such as reducing food waste.  Each step we take the world is thanking us.

I know it is hard in the modern day to be conscientiousness of the world, its people, and the way we work together ... but if there is one thing that is important for the future of man its that we need to learn to be more conscientious of these types of decisions we make.  In this blog we will start small and move forward as we learn more together.

This will be the catalyst for our change in responsible behaviors.  I look forward to writing more posts on this subject and feel free to message me if you have any articles you would like to see.

Wishing everyone the best in our new socially responsible endeavor,
Rachel