Today, businesses are focused solely on making money. In their quest to achieve their selfish goals, they harm their employees, customers and all of Nature. This kind of behaviour has to stop.
We have to change from selfishness (for me) to bestowal (for others). Instead of seeking to benefit ourselves, we should seek to benefit others and all of Nature.
Businesses have to start taking responsibility for how their products affect people, animals, society and all of Nature.
One of the ways to achieve this (and in the spirit of transparency), is to disclose how their products are made through clear and obvious labeling. Here are some suggestions, perhaps you have your own ideas:
- Food:
- GMOs:
- All genetically modified foods (GMOs) should end immediately.
- Where they temporarily persist, GMOs (and products with GMO ingredients) should be labeled.
- GMO Free:
- All food that isn't GMO (and products that don't have GMO ingredients) could also be labeled, e.g. GMO FREE.
- Nutrition Scale:
- All food/products ingested by people and animals should have a label with a nutrition scale. For example:
- 1 - for low (or no) nutritional value
- 10 - for the highest nutritional value
- All items could be subjected to this scale, not only food, but also things like cigarettes, alcohol etc. Special labels could be used for products that are known to cause harm to others.
- Treatment:
- Products should be labeled to let consumers know how employees, suppliers etc., are treated. For example:
- Ethical Treatment of Animals (ETOA)
- Ethical Treatment of Farmers (ETOF)
- Ethical Treatment of Suppliers (ETOS)
- Ethical Treatment of Employees (ETOE)
- Environment:
- Products should be labeled to show the impact the product has had on the environment. For example:
- Environmentally Friendly Product (EFP) could mean that no herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, growth hormones, fertilizers, toxins etc., were used. Or that no harm was caused to the air, land, waters and Nature as a whole.
- Recycling:
- Businesses should be more actively involved in recycling their own products. Having a recycling logo on a product isn't enough.
- Businesses could include clear recycling instructions, even mailing instructions if need be.
- Businesses could also offer money, credit or other incentives for used products that are returned, which could include items such as electronics, to burger wrappers, to coffee cups, to gum wrappers etc.
- Whenever I see fast food wrappers, gum wrappers, cups, bottles with logos etc., littered on the ground, I always think - why aren't the companies doing more to make sure that doesn't happen. It's negative advertising for companies when their wrappers / products / containers (with their logos) are strewn as litter.
- Benevolent Score:
- Just as FICO [1] scores are used to measure consumer credit risk, benevolent scores could be used to measure business benevolence - the positive impact businesses have on people, animals and all of Nature.
- Businesses that harm people, animals and all of Nature, receive a low benevolent score.
- Businesses that benefit people, animals and all of Nature, receive a high benevolent score.
It's time for businesses to take responsibility for their actions, specifically how their products affect people, animals and all of Nature. It's no longer about making money, because that system is antiquated and unsustainable.
Round tables need to be established to discuss these issues and find solutions that benefit people, animals and all of Nature.
Round tables need to be established to discuss these issues and find solutions that benefit people, animals and all of Nature.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
_______References:
- FICO. www.en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved Feb 19, 2015.
