I am a volunteer and activist for the movement “Economy for the Common Good”. Wow! Cool, huh. Bet you’re jealous. Sure there are peace activists out there, human rights activists, environmental activists. They’re are all over the place. But have you ever met a Common Good activist before?
OK, as they say in German “Spass beiseite” which translates roughly to “let us now place the fun part aside and get down to some serious business”. For about 6 months now I’ve been involved in this Common Good thing and I think it’s pretty cool. Why? Well for one I like working for the Common Good. You might say “no shit”, don’t we all? My answer is, sure. That’s the second fun part about it. There’s a ton of support out there and when I tell people about it they mostly say something like “that sounds like a groovy idea”.
The goal of the movement is to put the public good, the environment and human dignity at the forefront of all economic activity and thus replacing the mantra of profit maximization with all of its disastrous consequences. Business and the public sector must work toward bettering the lives of humans across the planet, protecting the environmental, improving social justice and promoting democracy. Again, some may think “no brainer, dude”. That’s what we all want. But how do we get there? How can we convince CEO’s that short-term profit and shareholder value are not where its at?
One way is to mobilize the people, create issue campaigns, pressure politicians or fight for legislative change. While these activities are extremely important and can be effective, we want to go a different path. We want to change the system from within. We want to start a process of reevaluating what is really important for business owners, for employees, for civil servants and for all stakeholders in general.
Am I going to be happy and motivated working for a company that is chiefly interested in maximizing their profits, growing ever larger and wiping out competition? Is that what the Generation Y is looking for? Asking pointed questions about one’s own company can set off a transformative, powerful process. Questions like these need to be asked:
- Is our supply chain environmentally and ethically sound?
- Do we examine social and ecological aspects when choosing financial services?
- Are the products we produce serving humankind or the environment?
- What is the income disparity within our company?
- What are we doing to discourage discrimination?
Each of the 17 indicators has a maximum score and taken together add up to a maximum of 1000 points. With this simple, clear, understandable information, public officials, customers, clients and other stakeholders can immediately judge the performance of individual companies. Although an ECG report is mandatory, this “score card” makes it feasible for people to judge business behavior. Other tools for judging a companies social and environmental behavior require only a report and it is totally unrealistic to expect consumers to read reports before choosing which product to buy.
On the one hand, the ECG gives consumers and other stakeholders a tool to better judge the ethical, environmental and human rights standards being upheld by a particular company. On the other hand, the ECG provides companies with a tool to improve internal organizational issues, employee motivation, quality, and long-term stability. Moreover, it gives companies the ability to communicate to their customers exactly which steps they are taking to become a Common Good Business.
In the end, that is what has motivated me to become actively involved in this international, grass-roots movement for humane and sustainable economy. A network of local support groups is growing day by day. If there is not a group in your area already then you can start your own. Check out our website for more information at www.economy-for-the-common-good.org.
Gus Hagelberg
July, 2013
Tübingen, Germany
