RESPECT IS THE REAL BOTTOM LINE

My Everlane puffer has been the perfect COVID coat. Warm and light; lots of pockets all in the right places; perfect-sized hood; snug but roomy, it is functionally excellent and aesthetically a solid B+. All at a great sale price. Too much happiness. And all of this happened without a visit to a physical store; I minimized my personal physical imprint by not travelling to and from the store, and contained viral transmission 

Everlane reinforced my belief that my purchase did not add to the destruction of the world.  My coat arrived with tags that explained how the down inside the coat is not new, but is taken from used comforters, sleeping bags and pillows. And the coat is made in “ethical factories”.  Everlane is committed to explaining all of this to its customers through what they term “radical transparency”.  

So my purchase, which if we were brutally honest is not essential (I have lived in Toronto for many winters and have numerous winter coats that are perfectly wearable and fashionable) is not contributing to landfills and plastic ocean bombs; nor is it contributing the horrors of slave labour.  

 Environmental and human sustainability can align with profit.  Or can it? 

The proof that companies can produce at scale, protect the environment and support communities continues to be debated. There is certainly more action, measurements and reporting that demonstrate corporations are making great strides in reducing their impact and championing social issues. But there are also deep critiques that these measures are sophisticated marketing tactics designed to fortify reputational equity while avoiding the real truths. 

 Ex-Bank of Canada and England Governor Mark Carney asserts in Value(s) that as price has replaced value, value has been emptied of values.  Tariq Fancy, who once upon a time led sustainable investment at Blackrock, asserts that ESG investing is a dangerous because it is a “societal placebo” obscuring the truth that the market is incapable of taking care of the planet. Joel Bakan returns with The New Corporation, and asserts that the corporation continues to be a dangerous sociopath. And Michael Moss in Hooked, asks one very simple, disruptive question:  Should we judge companies by their profits, or by how they affect the world? 

 The reality of this past COVID year is that we have the lived experience of the entangled interconnectedness of things. There is no action that does not affect others. And this is as basic as the air we breathe.  The air I breathe out really does affect the air you breathe in – and when we are both threatened by a potentially deadly airborne virus, we live the reality of how each individual breath matters to the breath and health of the other.  

 And from there we see and understand our interconnectedness through everything from the groceries we buy, how we buy them, how we dispose of them, who is on the front line behind the plastic protector, who is doing the deliveries, who is packing the boxes.  

 This shines a stark, bright light on how corporations are not just part of the interconnectedness, but are shapers of it. And now we all see, and know it. 

 This shifts the intensity of the watching.  The watchers of corporate behaviour have done an important and admirable job exposing deficient and harmful behaviours: think Palm Oil production, industrial fish farming, mineral mining, to name just a few examples.  And corporations have responded with often well-intentioned commitments and action, and risk-mitigating compliance reporting. It has however, been a tense relationship: watchers ever eager to reveal action and judge intention, and corporations always trying to pre-emptively protect and defend. 

 This COVID year has more than intensified the watching because now we all see the impact of how corporations manage workers, customers, communities, suppliers and the environment. The COVID year has shifted how corporations understand the dangers, and benefits, of managing the full impact they make on the world. Corporations now see how being stewards of people and resources translates directly into reputational equity and profitability. Interconnectedness demands answerability. 

 Success will not come to those who hide their rapaciousness with well-crafted social marketing campaigns or perfunctory measurement and reporting. Interconnectedness has shown that one needs to respect all that it takes to produce the down-filled coat; all the people and resources that are required to get it on the backs of your customers. When you respect all the elements and people required for production, you are respecting your consuming audiences.  When your audiences feel and see that you respect them, they will respect you. 

 And that is the key to enduring profitability. 

We have arrived at the real bottom line. 

Respect.