What is an ethical business?

I am often asked what I mean by an ethical business. Less so these days with all the publicity about what the banks and other big financial institutions have been up to over the last few years; and we all know, I think, what is meant by 'ethical' after the goings-on with MP's and their expense sheets. But for some of us, running an ethical business is much more than this - it's bound up with an ideal lifestyle we aspire to. Or, in a nutshell, there's more to business than just making money.

Rather than trying to define what is meant by an ethical business, I'm going to quote an article written recently by the editor of Ethical Pulse, the online journal for members of www.ethical-junction.org. It's well worth reading, and it's also well worth looking on their website at the many businesses now out there that aren't just paying lip service to honesty, integrity, environmental issues, etc etc etc...

Although it's written from the business point of view, I hope it will set some of you thinking about what and where you buy, and much more.

Here's the article.

Why surviving the downturn using ethical principles is just like giving up smoking...

I gave up smoking two years ago – I proudly handed my 20 pack of
Marlboro Red over to my Mum announcing that she can “lock them in the safe as a memento of
the smoker that I used to be.”

Needless to say they were all smoked by the next day...

Now, what that says about me as a person is not the point (please
remember, I did say I have now managed to give up!) – the point is that I made a
decision and I was sure that it was the biggy. A much harder decision actually came ten
minutes later when I suddenly wanted to challenge the original one. In fact, those
decisions just kept on coming – they still do now, except now I have made it second
nature to override them and not smoke. So, what initially felt like the BIG decision was
actually the first of many many much smaller ones. And in the end I cracked it.

Maybe I am teaching Grandmothers to suck eggs, but this is my best
analogy for setting off on the path to operate any business ethically. Sure, announcing that
you are going to is one thing – but can you really tell a previously valued and
coveted supplier that you will not be able to continue buying from him unless they ...?

Can you really bring yourself to do things that you will see no immediate financial
reward for?

Can you base your decisions on more than profit?

For me running my business ethically has represented exactly the same challenge as giving up smoking. It was just a matter of recognising when the decisions popped up and learning what my new protocol was.

One of the problems with applying the ethical approach to pure commerce is that it
regularly rejects the obvious answer.Capitalism at its most mercenary does not believe
that what goes around comes around, it does not recognise the ramifications of any
action unless they are a direct benefit – and it certainly does not take anyone else
in to consideration.

The ethical approach does, however. It inspires longevity in business relationships.
It limits the damage that business practice inflicts on the environment. It does
promote considered long term decision making processes. It does ask if everyone involved
in the business is being treated fairly. Correctly applied ethical policy and practice
in conjunction with modern commercial techniques can ensure the sustainability of
a business within the economy. And in times like these that is exactly what entrepreneurs
really need to do.

So, what does make a business ethical? And the short answer is a decision. A decision
to question what you do and how you do it. There are many dimensions to ethical business
behaviour and once you’ve embarked on an analysis of how you operate there are few
areas of operation that won’t need re-evaluating.

The obvious things to start looking at are what materials and products you use in
your business. For each, ask yourself what impact they have on both the environment
and the people who make them. The goal should be about minimising environmental harm
while maintaining a fair system for the workers. Often not an easy balance to achieve.
Inevitably there will be compromises and trade-offs such as buying local instead
of organic or fairtrade instead of local, or going for durability over eco-friendliness.
The point is to keep asking the question and making the best decision you can.

Beyond the ‘things’ you use or make there are also questions about how you, as a
business, behave. How ethical is your policy towards employees? How ethical are you
in your dealings with competitors, suppliers and customers? Do you really have to
make profit maximisation the objective every time? Of course, you never run out of questions. There are new decisions to be made all the time and new information to evaluate. It isn't easy.
99% fall at the first hurdle – I did. But there is always another hurdle – indeed, there are other races.

Ethical Junction members have all committed to operate by the Ethical Policy outlined
at www.ethical-junction.org/policy For anyone else who wants to get technical – look up
Bellman's Principle – a theory of dynamic programming – its all there!

Robert Weston, Editor, Ethical Pulse
editor@ethical-junction.org

Need a last-minute presnt for Dad? - still time to order!

Just a quick post to let you all know that there’s still just time to order that last-minute present for Dad. We can take online or telephone orders up to 12 p.m. tomorrow, Friday 19th June, but obviously it would help us if you could get your orders in earlier.

Prize draw winner announced!

We're pleased to announce the winner of our latest prize draw.

Val from Whitworth is the winner of an organic instant window box garden, so let's hope the summer will be a good one for Val.

The garden is provided in association with Rocket Gardens Ltd, a welcome addition to the organic gift market, who are based down in Cornwall. They just love our Gardener's Delight soap and we love their gardens!

If you didn't win, don't worry. We're offering a Children's Instant Garden when we visit Constable Lee School in Rawtenstall on 4th July, and there'll be another prize draw on our website soon.

Congratulations, Val, and thank you all for entering.

What a week!

It always amazes me when I look back and realise it's three weeks since I posted to the blog. Time just seems to fly, and I'm coming to the conclusion that to do all the things you need to do to run a business successfully you need at least ten heads, six pairs of hands, a couple of extra pairs of feet, six computers, a 36-hour day, and a bank account with millions to spend on advertising.

So much has been happening over the last couple of weeks that I sometimes wish I was back in my old job teaching snotty-nosed kids who didn't want to learn. I sometimes remember with nostalgia staying up till midnight marking and preparing for the next day.

But, no, of course I wouldn't go back there, not for all the – tea in China?
(China? Don't start me off on that one, we're ethical).

So what's been going on at Essentially Natural?

Well, we're in the middle of the exhibition/craft fair season, and, mentioning that, we're at a garden party tomorrow (Saturday) at Whitworth Library. So we've been getting things ready for that, as well as updating our website, literature, photos, etc. etc.

You can read more about the library and Whitworth here:

If you can't make tomorrow, we're supporting a local school in Bacup in a week or two – watch this space for details.

Josef, our 18-year-old, is in the middle of his "A"-levels, so we're all stressed, and working from home means that we're stressed in the daytime as well!

But the big news is nothing to do with our business, although of course I hope it will have spin-offs.

Our son, Anton, is taking over the restaurant at the Horse and Jockey pub in Edenfield, just up the road from us. And of course he needs lots of advice from his Mum and Dad. :)

We'll post more information nearer the launch date, but in the meantime you might want to head over to Ask Rossendale to have a look at what else is going on in our locality. We'll have some pages up there soon, but, yes, you've guessed it, I've not had time to put anything up there yet.

Oh yeah, one last thing:

If you've not yet got anything for your Dad, why not take a look at our Father's Day page? You could do a lot worse. :)