Improving the Financial Leg

Finances have always been the core reason behind a business. If there are no funds or income there is no business. Making money is important. But how companies go about making and/or saving money isn't always in the best interest of anyone outside the the top tier.

So what's done? In a general basis, employees have their wages slashed or cut completely and therefore laid off, short-cuts are taken, ethics are ignored, and the company does better for another quarter or so until the process starts again. Globalization also happens, but for what might seem like the wrong reasons. It's cheaper to build or manufacture across seas. Wages are cheaper there too.

But what about the positives of the financial leg? It's okay to make money. As I said, it's the reasons businesses exist. I plan on working for a business some day and get paid well doing a job I've prepared for while in college. I am not bashing companies for making these decisions, money is money. However, the above paragraph is what happens when just the financial benefits are the only concern. Decisions that affect the environment, and societies that the company influences need to be considered in financial decisions. This would better round out the finance side, in my opinion. Businesses need to start shifting away from looking solely at the bottom line, as scary as that would and will be for nearly all business owners.

Improving the Social Leg

Last Friday I asked you readers to think about what kind of social changes you could envision being changed, added, or whatever in your place of employment. What sort of things did you come up with?

On my part I looked over my college, Aquinas, as I am unemployed at the moment. Things AQ could do to improve the social leg of sustainability? Well, from a student's perspective classes could be held outdoors (weather permitting) and/or more guest speakers could come in and talk. I have had classes where both have happened, but the occasions are few and far between. It's been studied and recorded that humans work and feel better when in natural surroundings.

And talking with speakers who are living in the day to day world has happened too, just not in every class. And I don't mean just a Q&A about their job, how they got there, etc. etc. Talks about what they get out of working there - the social behaviors and attributes they've seen in the work place, even going as far as talking about social politics in the work place. Aspects that aren't discussed anywhere it seems, but very important.

Suppose company A has leisurely lunch breaks, outside working areas (or break areas) and an open floor plan.  Now suppose company B has a strict schedule, determined working places, and set hours for everything. Neither is better than the other, it's what you perfer. You wouldn't want to work at B when you longed for A (or vice versa) would you?

It's why potential college students tour campuses after all. Which area fits you best? That's the social leg of sustainability at work. What makes you comfortable and secure is what will make you produce you best work. Need to work from home? Great. Work better in an office? Fantastic. Find what works for you and the rest will follow.

Something to Think About: The Three Legs

By now you have a decent understanding of the core meanings behind the three legs of sustainability: financial, social, and environmental. What we haven't talked about yet in detail are the ethics associated with each leg.

So for this weekend think of possible scenarios where ethics can help OR hinder the progress of these three legs, in any way you can imagine.

Living Downstream

Today I want to share with you a book that discusses in great length what happens when one area is polluted, causing effects miles and miles down from the original pollution location.

This book is Living Downstream written by Sandra Steingraber.

It's a good read.

Steingraber explores in her book the cause and effects of pollutants and carcinogens (cancer causing) in our water systems and beyond. Her chapters are divided up as follows:

Trace Amounts
Silence
Time
Space

War
Animals
Earth
Air
Water
Fire
Our Bodies, Inscribed
Ecological Roots

If you are at all curious to know about what is in our waters, soil, plants, and animals that we both see and consume give this book a read. I promise you won't regret it.

It has been some time since I've read this piece of writing cover to cover, but I often refer to it when talking about how what someone does in one area affects another area.

Something to Think About: Where You Work

After reading the article from Chipotle and thinking about social effects a company or business can have on it's employees, workers, and inventory/product sources.

So, for this weekend think on this:

What could the company, business, or place of employment you are at do better in regards to the social leg of sustainable businesses?

Current Topic Thursdays: Farm Workers

This week in current topic Thursday I am bringing up the topic that weighs heavily in the SOCIAL leg of the sustainable business stool.

The problem?

Workers (in general) are paid low-to-near-nothing wages, have what would be considered by 'regular' workers inhuman working conditions, and labor for hours without anything better in front of them.

Take the events happening with Chipotle.

I was not aware of Chiplotle's ethical meat before this, and at first I was all, "Yay ethics!" But then I was like, "Oh... half-assed ethics.

In brief the article written by Christopher Weber explains and summarizes the food business's past positives with ethical meat processes, but wonders why the jump from pigs to human work ethics is so far apart.

"But those values get complicated fast when you’re talking about an enormous mobile workforce, and it’s not clear that Ells gets that. Says Ratner, “You can’t take the same top-down approach that you might use for humane treatment of animals and just apply it to farmworkers. It takes the recognition of those workers as equal partners every bit as important as Chipotle’s customers.”

 

If you remember from before, social positives and ethical changes for the best for all are the bulk of the social leg of sustainable business. With that in mind, what are your thoughts on not only Chipotle, but the topic of worker's rights in general (unions, traditional workers, hired hands, immigrant ... any and all).

Energyception

Here is a simple image to show how the different types of alternative energies stack inside of each other. Does this help make it easier to see how not all alternative energies are sustainable?

Energy inside energy inside energy....

Again - alternative is anything not oil, coal, or natural gas.
Renewable includes sources like nuclear, biomass, or wood.
Sustainable encompass solar, oceanic, and wind.