Social Responsibility

My recent post about Wal-Mart's professed desire to go green generated some valuable feedback from reader Valerie who commented, "When I read that you declined to have your products in Wal-Mart I was completely shocked for many reasons."

First, I want say thanks, Valerie, for your thoughtful critique of our decision not to sell to Wal-Mart. This is without question one of the most complicated business and ethical questions we face. And it's well worth adding a few additional thoughts to my previous post.

On July 26th Fortune Magazine published a cover story on Wal-Mart under the banner “Wal-Mart Saves the Planet, Well Not Quite…”

Something is going on here that I’m not quite sure we understand.

Whether you believe Wal-Mart is the devil incarnate or are a cheerleader for what they are doing, the truth lies somewhere else.

Call me crazy – but I believe this is a bigger, more significant, pattern changing event. We can’t understand it by looking back – we need to understand it as a new possibility that is rushing toward us. The future in the making.

Think, the end of the cold war, the Berlin wall coming down, our first trip to the moon.

That is not to say it’s all good, but here are 7 things to ponder...

Seventh Generation honored the Haudenosaunee (the Iroquois’ preferred name for themselves) for the gift of our name by helping out at Ganondagan’s 15th Annual Native American Dance & Music Festival and donating some dollars as a corporate sponsor. Lee and her family, Brian, Luke, and Alex, and Carl and Laurie represented Seventh Generation, with Bec and Gregor each donating their time to make our sponsorship happen.

I just saw Al Gore’s movie. I know why he named it An Inconvenient Truth. Because much of what we can and must do is in fact inconvenient. The movie left me deeply saddened and depressed since so much of what I can and must do I have left undone. I have been complacent, left this challenge in the hands of others, and failed to take adequate responsibility for my own actions. That is now over. While I can say I already knew much of what Gore had to say, seeing all the facts and implications assembled together in such a powerful way has moved me to commit to the actions I have left undone.

This is a fantastic and terribly important movie. If you haven’t seen it, please go.