« inequalities.net or downmystreet.co.uk | Main | ACT - Activist Communications Tool »
Company Ethics Database
FROM: Jeremy French
What NEED does this meet?
If information about what unethical & ethical practices companies are involved in was available in an easy to access database then consumers would be able to choose and companies they purchase from and companies would need to be more accountable
What is the APPROACH?
A user updateable database of companies and their working practice. These can be categorised and searched through. Links to relevant reports and news storeys can be posted for verification.
The database will also keep track of the ownership of companies so that conglomerates are easy to identify.
The database can be expanded to brands and products so that consumers can be aware of what they will be supporting with their purchases.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
People will be able to easily base their purchases on practices they believe are right. So if someone didnt agree with animal testing they could avoid companies that are involved in that. Sometimes an ethical company is owned by a larger unethical one and it is difficult to tell what you are supporting when you buy things.
What is the COMPETITION?
No competition that I know of.
What BUDGET & LOGISTICS are required?
There is a little development work involved in the front end, servers will need to be hosted and sponsored. Depending on the popularity bandwidth may become costly but there may be interested contentious parties that will help with the posting (guardian/BBC/NGOs).
Can be run on open source software linux/apache/php/mysql
November 4, 2003 in Corporate Social Responsibility, Empowering Consumers, Reputation Systems | Permalink
Comments
A legal nightmare (this is sure to get hammered by well-funded packs of lawyers) but I do like the idea of entering a product or brand and knowing exactly what or who I'm supporting.
Posted by: Tim at Nov 4, 2003 3:43:40 PM
If you base everything on publicly available info I don't see that there would be a legal issue.
All you are doing is putting the information in one place to make it more accessible.
If you get letter from a lawyer you will have to pull something down but make a note that it was pulled down and link to the info that you were using.
There is a lot of negative PR involved in suppressing information, especially if the information is true.
Of course it may be a good idea to have a peer review process so that stories get validated before they are posted.
Posted by: jeremy french at Nov 4, 2003 5:29:53 PM
Oh just realised somebody has suggested something simialar before I got here.
Must be a good idea then.
check out 'Brand Facts' below
Posted by: jeremy french at Nov 4, 2003 5:33:56 PM
What's ethical?
Seriously you have to consider this question. Consider for example a large chemical/industrial
plant. Consider further that an accident occurs at 100's maybe 1000's of people are poisoned.
Is the company concerned unethical because it only kept to the local safety standards and not
some higher safety standard. Especially given the level of regulation that changes across the globe and in a competitive environment business moves to the less regulated regimes. Indeed a company has a moral obligation to it's shareholders. It could be considered 'unethical' to increase your costs so that the shareholders get less of a return on their investment.
Is it unethical because the company safety standards are only at the level required by the local jurisdications. Surely it is the law which is unethical in this instance. (there is nothing in law which requires it to be ethical, sensible or even fair).
I also think that such a site would be have to tip toe through the legal minefield.
Posted by: Paul at Nov 4, 2003 5:40:32 PM
I was thinking that the user would be able to search for things that they considered ethical and unethical.
So in your example if somone thought it was fine to stick to local safty standards then the incedent would not be flagged, if they thought higer standards were required wherever the factory then it would be.
The database itself would not decide what was and was not ethical.
Posted by: jeremy french at Nov 5, 2003 9:08:52 AM
If you wanted to rank a brand/product/company by your own standards there could be a series of questions that would define what the user considered ethical/unethical and score them on the user's personal scale.
Posted by: Mike Brophy at Nov 5, 2003 2:59:43 PM
Jeremy - join the club! You're now the *fifth* person to suggest a system such as/similar to this. Check out my Brand Facts ( http://mysociety.blogs.com/mysociety/2003/10/brand_facts.html ), the Corportation Public Good Summarizer/voter ( http://mysociety.blogs.com/mysociety/2003/10/corporation_pub.html ), the Goods and Services Database ( http://mysociety.blogs.com/mysociety/2003/11/goods_and_servi.html )and the productgrill - Barcode Power ( http://mysociety.blogs.com/mysociety/2003/11/productgrill_ba.html ).
And regarding law suits - these could act in our favour. See http://www.badcorp.org/dontSue.cfm .
Posted by: Jake at Nov 6, 2003 9:17:27 AM
Hi,
Some groups already do some of the work you are advoctaing.
Take a look at the work Corporate Watch does for background on corporate abuse
of power
Also, track board and shareholder info at The Corporate Library
http://www.thecorporatelibrary.com/shareholder-action/shareprops/campaigns.asp
Posted by: Jennifer Harvey at Nov 7, 2003 4:06:27 PM
While I like the idea, I see a lot of practical problems. How would you verify that data people posted was correct? I see a big potential here for people posting something they heard from a mate down the pub or from a forwarded email without checking it really is true.
Posted by: Helen at Dec 1, 2003 1:36:07 PM
You mean a company would unethical just to make more money. LOL
Posted by: dave at Dec 3, 2003 5:45:30 PM
Just to say that the UK's Ethical Consumer magazine has been based on just such a database since it was launched in 1989. Staff methodically enter public domain and company-supplied data across the full spectrum of ethical issues. A new company, ECIS, was formed in 2003 to develop this database further. It is already searchable by subscribers though. Take a look at the website! There are similar organisations in the US and elsewhere.
Posted by: hannah at Feb 26, 2004 9:42:52 PM
Just to say that the UK's Ethical Consumer magazine has been based on just such a database since it was launched in 1989. Staff methodically enter public domain and company-supplied data across the full spectrum of ethical issues. A new company, ECIS, was formed in 2003 to develop this database further. It is already searchable by subscribers, though. Take a look at the website! There are similar organisations in the US and elsewhere.
Posted by: hannah at Feb 26, 2004 9:43:32 PM
Just to say that the UK's Ethical Consumer magazine has been based on just such a database since it was launched in 1989. Staff methodically enter public domain and company-supplied data across the full spectrum of ethical issues. A new company, ECIS, was formed in 2003 to develop this database further. It is already searchable by subscribers, though. Take a look at the website! There are similar organisations in the US and elsewhere.
Posted by: hannah at Feb 26, 2004 10:02:53 PM