Down with ethics! they're overrated, I say - News You Can Use - Brief Article

T+D, Sept, 2002 by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson

Yes, you read that correctly. I say ethics are overrated--despite their position as the corporate poster child in a post-Enron, post-WorldCom world.

I propose a different standard. Mine is concerned less with not doing bad and more with actually doing good. Less with what a company is required to do and more with what it does voluntarily, above and beyond its duty. Call it what you want--it's not corporate responsibility but perhaps corporate respectability.

Here are examples of what some people and companies are doing.

Corporate angels. More than 500 companies, including more than half of the Fortune 100, participate in the Corporate Angel Network. A not-for-profit organization based in New York, CAN links companies that have empty seats on corporate jets to cancer patients who need to get to treatment. The companies receive no tax breaks or publicity for donating the seats--just the knowledge that they're helping someone. With the program, patients with limited funds are able to reach hospitals far from home, avoiding crowded airport terminals and minimizing exposure to germs.

Sustainable manufacturing. Environmental designer William McDonough helps his clients many environmentalism with capitalism. McDonough is remaking the entire manufacturing process to ensure that goods and production methods are nontoxic and regenerative. His methods also happen to save money.

Clients include Nike, which is developing a sneaker that can completely biodegrade into soil; Steelcase, which is making a fabric so toxin-free that you can actually eat it; and BASF, which is producing a carpet that customers can bring back and have made into a new one.

Million-dollar grant. Nan McKay and Associates, a training supplier focusing on housing management, is giving away US$1 million in online training to families in subsidized housing. The grants, $800 for each person, will enable recipients to make the leap to better jobs after taking courses in computer skills, customer service, basic math and grammar, money management, and more. McKay wants to help bridge the skills gap created by shrinking government funding.

Community fellowship. Cisco's Community Fellowship Program matched 80 downsized employees with nonprofit organizations that are benefiting from the workers' expertise. As part of the year-long program, participants are working in-house at the organizations, retaining their benefits and a third of their Cisco salary.

There's no cost to the not-for-profits for the placement. At the end of the year, the workers will be considered internal candidates for positions at Cisco.

Graduation pledges. They're not in corporations yet, but when they are they'll make a difference. More than 10,000 students at 100 U.S. colleges and universities have signed the Graduation Pledge, promising to "take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job" they may apply for. In addition, they pledge to try to improve those aspects of any organization" they work for. The movement was started by students at Manchester College in Indiana, where about half of the student body takes the pledge.

Although companies must ensure that their business practices are really on the up-and-up (as opposed to just appearing so), many of us think the standard is being set too low. In our days of innocence, we took for granted that companies and CEOs were ethical. Let's not lose that expectation as we lose our naivete. Let's put the focus on doing more than what's required. Business practices that go above and beyond a simple standard of ethics should be the rule rather than the exception.

* Sources/Business Week, Fast Company

More Info

* www.corpangelnetwork.org

* Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (McDonough and Braungart, 2002)

* www.nanmckay.com

* www.cisco.com/warp/public/750/philanthropy/spotlight.html

* www.manchester.edu/academic/programs/departments/peace_studies/files/ gpa.htm