We Dream Business

Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank

manndeshi — 2013-06-09T16:46:18Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

The Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (Mann Deshi Bank) is a cooperative, self-sustaining bank created by and for women. It was founded in 1997 and established in Maharashtra (India) by a group of illiterate women, who still compose the board today.

Its mission was and still is at the present to help women in impoverished regions achieve financial independence and become self-sufficient. Due to the bank's commitment to its mission, it has gained the trust of its clients throughout the years (nowadays over 140,000), which has made it the first largest microfinance bank in Maharashtra and the second in India. The repayment rate reaches 98% and the bank has made profits since 2000, which has secured its consistent highest grade from the National Bank.

The bank's majority of clients fall below the poverty line—called by the government the priority or weak sector—but its mission goes beyond financial aid. It has also created the NGO Mann Deshi Foundation, which provides clients with non-financial services: for instance, it allows women that dropped out of school obtain the basic knowledge to open a business or manage their earnings, and it offers a bus for the clients that live far from the city, among others. In addition, it has partnered with the government with the aim of decreasing the marginalisation of these women. In fact, the bank has won several awards (from Harvard and Yale among others) recognizing the bank's innovative view of business and its mission.

But why did it inspire us?

The most striking fact about this bank is that it was created by a group of illiterate rural women that fought really hard to attain their objective: obtaining the first rural financial license from the Reserve Bank of India. But what was the inner motivation that pushed them to pursue this goal? The main cause for this effort was that the majority of the women living in the Satara district had no opportunities elsewhere—due to an illiteracy rate of 65%, among other factors—and so were obliged to depend completely on the agricultural sector, which was heavily affected by the lack of rain. The creation of a microfinance institution in the region translated into the offering of low-interest-rate loans mainly to poor women, which allowed them to make profitable investments and improve their standard of living. Moreover, the bank did not offer only financial services; it also tried to provide these women with the necessary skills to achieve their objectives.

The most inspiring about this company is the fact that a group of women with a strong motivation did something significant for this world, even though they lacked the necessary knowledge. They fulfilled their dreams and created a strong bank with a strong mission: helping poor women in India succeed in improving their quality of life. Therefore, this means that the ones that have more knowledge should be even more capable of creating truly ethical businesses.
We, the ones that have the knowledge, should strive to improve this world.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

The main challenge that Mann Deshi bank is addressing is also the main problem in many countries, especially in India: huge economic inequality between people. Its challenge is to solve this big gap between people and decrease the marginalisation of the least fortunate. In fact, it focuses on rural women who are usually the most affected by poverty and marginalisation.

It achieves its objectives by helpings financially and non-financially women in poor areas. The Bank gives them financial support in order to allow them have a business and lead a better life. But apart from the financial support, it also gives them training and important knowledge to improve their business.
But it goes even further in its mission and tries to protect women in every possible way. It does not just give loans as any other bank; it tries to protect women's financial assets as well as their personal assets. By financial assets we mean informing them about their rights to own assets- i.e. establish their rights in case of a divorce-, while by personal assets we mean giving them the necessary health information to care about their most important assets: their body.

But the most challenging objective that the Bank pursues is not only trying to cope with these problems in the present, but also trying to avoid their persistence in the future. It fights for this objective by helping younger generations have more opportunities to study and succeed and finally be able to decrease this gap.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

The Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank is a cooperative created by and for women. Is it ethical? It has been ethical from its inception precisely because of that. Is there a better alignment of interests between a firm and society when societal needs are precisely the cause of the creation of the firm? Possibly not. In an impoverished district in India, the perseverance of a courageous group of illiterate, rural women determined to obtain a banking license from the Bank of India ended up with the creation of a win-win business scheme in which the concepts of ethics and profitability form a unique symbiosis. In fact, the Mann Deshi Bank operates at a special level: Help the poor, help yourself. Let poor people have access to knowledge and financial resources, and you'll be able to benefit from them.

The bank has disrupted the longstanding dichotomies between money and ethics, poverty and unprofitability; profitability motives executed with ethics reduce poverty, which increases profitability in turn. Nice synergy. But, one may shoot a counterargument at this point: Is it ethical to benefit from the poor? Should a company make money in a context where money is a really scarce element? Isn't the Mann Deshi Bank spoiling financial resources from deprived areas? No. And no. Why? Through financial training and tailored financial products the bank is effectively generating value: It allows rural citizens to access resources from which greater value is created and extracted. It has been shown that the financial training organized by the Mann Deshi Foundation to its clients (and the door-to-door savings practice, which encourages regular savings) has been associated with an increase in weekly savings, repayment rates, and loans for more productive purposes. Therefore, existing (and new) money is diverted away from unproductive uses to more productive investments that yield larger financial rewards for all the participants. And not only that: We trust the bank because it has created a Foundation and a Self-Help Group, we trust it because its members have received awards from some of the most important institutions in the world, we trust it because it has steadily increased the number of clients, we trust it because it received the highest grade from India's National Bank. There is no way we could not trust them.

The revolution of microfinance is here. By reducing financial economies of scale and assuming different risk-return schemes (balancing credit default risks with returns that precisely minimize default), microfinance institutions prove successful in environments where poverty and access to resources jeopardize economic development. And not only India, but more developed countries experiencing economic trouble would definitely benefit from these ethical, profitable firms.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The main challenge that the Mann Deshi Bank may face in the future is keeping its initial values intact from all the exterior influences. By observing its key figures, it is quite obvious that the bank will keep growing and expanding its profits. However, most companies lose the essence of their values when undergoing such an expansion and end up increasing prices to increase even more profits. Therefore, its most important challenge would be to remain loyal to its first objectives.

The company could also aim at bringing its services to the whole rural India, given that nowadays only 10% of households have loans and 60% still do not have a bank account. But the trade-off would be that the bank is developing the entire financial infrastructure and supporting the costs but in the future another bank with more resources could enter the market and use the existing infrastructure. In this case, the challenge the Mann Deshi would be developing an even deeper trust in its products that would make clients more attached to it and so less likely to change to another bank.

Another aspect is the fact that the bank helps creating its future clients. It is offering the possibility to study to the young generation, which would convert them in more knowledgeable customers for the future. This would imply that the company could more easily implement new products to more conscious clients.

And another interesting consideration would be receiving a hypothetical acquisition offer. The most important question is which would be the bank's reaction confronted with an acquisition offer; which could be plausible taking into account the financial development it is carrying out. For many directors this is an attractive way for gaining a considerable amount of benefits, but usually affects directly the companies' vision and mission. Therefore, an important future challenge would be resisting to such temptations and maintaining its values protected from negative influences.

And, how could the bank be improved? The fact that it does well does not prevent it from being even better:

• In order to better serve its clients and build a more solid understanding of microfinancing, the Bank could cooperate and coordinate with other microfinance institutions in India in order to build synergies and share knowledge and best practices between them.

• In order to promote the role of microfinance worldwide and make it a clear alternative to traditional finance, the Bank could promote its business model by playing an active role in conferences in a global basis, inviting people to its facilities, and attracting experts conducting empirical research on the actual profitability of microfinance institutions.

• In order to explore alternative models to achieve economic development and sustain profitability in the Bank's area of influence, the Bank could create, invest or grant preferential loans to firms employing local people (and/or clients) as a means of creating value and industrializing the area. Alternatively, active partnership with public authorities (by means of cost sharing and/or acquisition of concessions) could attract public investment in the area in the form of infrastructure (chiefly water and electricity supply) and public equipments (mainly schools and hospitals).

The Courtyard Restaurant

AndreaOliver — 2013-06-08T18:10:26Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

The Courtyard, opened in 2009, is an independent restaurant and bar located in the centre of Brighton; Southern England attracting sophisticated diners with its ethically produced food. Owned and run by a brother and sister partnership that value ethical practice over profitability, The Courtyard prides itself with its locally sourced cuisine in a relaxed and vibrant location. Due to its size, the business employees a small number of personnel all of which believe in ethical custom and most of which, have been with the business since its opening. Their slogan, as stated on the website homepage, is that “menus are produced with one underlying principle – fresh, locally sourced cuisine”

The pillars of its business model include its exceptional food hygiene rating and sourcing of finer local ingredients from its vegetables to its meat and fish. Their food menu ranges from an early morning breakfast to pre-theatre menu, as it is located near the main theatres of Brighton's city centre. The interior has been designed to mimic that of a courtyard, as well as ethical “green” practises, with plants and trees throughout the premises. (See Exhibit 1)

Why the Courtyard

When undertaking the wedreambusiness project, it was imperative we base the assignment on a company we are all able to relate to, and one which inspired us on, not just a monetary success level, but by their ethical practise. The Courtyard epitomises a business, which individuals are able to relate to, and aspire to achieve similar success. Being an independent restaurant, one would imagine cost cutting and profitability would take precedence when taking decisions on daily operations but with The Courtyard, the owners decided to stick to their values and basic principals for the business, despite the higher costs and difficulties incurred in such activity. The benefit, we can see, pays off, with exceptional customer feedback and a loyal customer base. (See Exhibit 2) Being a group formed coincidentally of aspiring entrepreneurs, we are able to see, from the example of The Courtyard, that ethical practise is possible, and profitable if executed in an appropriate manner. We take the attitude that “if they can do it, we can do it,” which was debatable before undertaking the project.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

Sourcing

Given the extensive choice of menus and ingredients required, it is admiring that The Courtyard does not receive its supply from wholesalers. To our surprise, it is not only large-scale chain restaurants which source from wholesalers but most small independent restaurants also do, due to the large price difference. They took the brave decision to stick sourcing its ingredients from local farmers, butchers and fishmongers.

Recruitment and cooking process

When recruiting potential employees, The Courtyard specifically seeks those with similar values and those, which respect the decision to be as ethical as possible. This proves a slight issue in terms of chef recruitment, as the restaurant operates a strict “no frozen food” policy. Everything – be it a steak or a salad, a side dish of vegetables or a fish dish, is prepared to order from fresh ingredients. Furthermore, as stated by the annual health inspectors, The Courtyard is the only restaurant in the surrounding area to not have a microwave in the kitchen – which simultaneously serves an obstacle to chef recruitment. The ethical challenge therefore, proves to be in the form of conflicting interests in the two parties involved in the restaurant – the owners and the chef.

Following on from this, not only is it the chef that causes a challenge during the recruitment stage, but also the floor employees. As stated by the owners, it is imperative that the employees within the business have similar values, and act in line with the basic principles of the restaurant. Therefore, when looking to recruit potential employees, it becomes an ethical dilemma whether to recruit a more qualified individual with lower ethical values, or someone with less experience but in accordance with the nature of the business.

Food hygiene

An ethical challenge most businesses face in the restaurant industry lies in their food hygiene rating. It is, as stated by most health inspectors and industry experts, extremely difficult, and indeed rare, for a restaurant – specifically an independent establishment, to obtain a five star food and hygiene rating. This is awarded to restaurant with exceptional quality ingredients – which most importantly, are not falsely advertised. In a recent inspection, even the vodka in the “Smirnoff” bottle was tested to check it was indeed, what was being sold. What surprised us was the revelation that most restaurants claim to offer high quality goods, but only keep the packaging – replacing the contents with a more cost effective content. The Courtyard, for the second year in a row, was awarded the exclusive award.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

First hand experience

We chose this company, and trust its ethical practise as we have first hand experience of the day-to-day running of the restaurant. Having witnessed the struggle to maintain an ethical approach to operating a restaurant, given the significantly higher costs and difficulty involved in such practise, we were incredibly inspired by the owner's commitment to their core values when they opened the restaurant. As with most businesses, profitability, cost cutting and revenue generating are among the priorities – not just the larger scale chain businesses but small independent companies striving to succeed.

Charitable support

Furthermore, the restaurant has a system whereby a percentage of their profit is directly given to their chosen charity – also a local organisation, in which they are able to personally see the benefits provided by their donations. Being on one of the most central streets in Brighton – namely the road with the highest footfall in the city, charity events are often held on the street – with an example being the ‘Fringe Festival.' The restaurant offers discounted meals for charity events, supporting local, reputable causes.

Sustainable practise

The Courtyard emphasises the importance of recycling and proper waste disposal – rather than arranging a far cheaper and easier bulk collection of all waste from the premises on a daily basis, which most restaurants use. The waste is separated into the appropriate bins provided, and these are collected from recycling units every day – albeit at a higher cost to the business.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

Continued sustainable sourcing

Given the success of the restaurant thus far, the owners have expressed an interest in expanding the business, by which they are looking to open a second restaurant in the near future. The issue therefore, is whether they could afford to keep sourcing expensive, high quality ingredients without damaging their profitability too significantly.

Reuse of the no cooked raw ingredients

Despite the success of the restaurant, at the time the demand increases the ingredients purchase is increasing too. As all the restaurants, The Courtyard is addressing a challenge to what to do with the non-used but bought ingredients. They are already in contact with charity organizations to give the food for free after the closing hour of the restaurant. But after the future expansion of the restaurant and the continuous growing that's a challenge that always comes up.

Renova FPA, SA

MariaInes — 2013-06-07T11:48:31Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Renova – Fábrica de Papel do Almonda, SA, is a privately held and independent Portuguese company established in 1939 in Torres Novas, Portugal. The company's operates in the tissues industry, as referred, which consists of disposable paper, such as toilet paper, kitchen rolls, napkins, tissues, feminine hygiene products, in addition it also produces office paper. It is the leading brand within their industry in Portugal, 3rd in Spain, and is among the top tissue brands in Western Europe. Renova's production and investigation activities occur fully in two factories in Portugal, employing 590 people. In addition, due to its international expansion it also owns commercial subsidiaries in Spain, France, Belgium and Luxemburg. In 2011 sales reached €135 million, with a total production of

Since 2005 the company stands in the pedestal of the most innovative brands in the World , for the launching of black toilet paper, and further of many other colours and drawings. Its innovative products within an extremely commoditized category – tissues, allowed for recognition at a worldwide level. In particular within the marketing strategy field, where its object of study .

Although the black toilet paper company, as it is known, it is more than a good marketing case. The company's holds a holistic vision of the World established through its mission: “For a new well-being”. The values founding its mission are based on the connection between the body and the mind (due to the nature of its products), though also with everything that relates to their well-being. Such as respect by the Nature and its Beauty as mentioned in their statement where “(...) the human being on the exercise of its freedom must respect the Laws of Nature. He is not the Supreme Being of the Universe thus is shouldn't interfere with the Nature, nor with its equilibrium.”
With this motivation and conscious of the negative impact intrinsic to its business Renova made a public commitment to the Environment in 1993, when the company's first Environmental Declaration was emitted. The 2011 Declaration is the one ruling .
Since then Environmental Sustainability is at the core of its business, being the conductive force of its operations. An Environmental Management System is integrated with other Management Systems such as: Quality and Health Safety Management; Innovation, Research & Development; Lab Quality.

The commitment with the Environment and Sustainability is reflected in Renova's goods created with 50% of recycled paper pulp and the remaining natural fibers.
In 2007, the company launched a line of products – Renovagreen, produced with recycled materials exclusively, and through production processes with zero Environmental impact.

The Environmental Management System Policies are defined by the Board, which ensures the means for the feasibility of its goals. These are then ensured by the Environmental Management Department, which does the planning and resource management necessary for its accomplishment. The procedures are then communicated to the Operations Management Department which are responsible for the implementation and coordination.
This vertically integrated modus operandi allows a continuous improvement in production process towards environmental sustainability to be ensured. Which are measured and reported by Environmental Performance Indicators, related to the main impact of its activities:
Energy
Water
Materials
Atmospheric Emissions
Waterwaste
Residues

The application of this Environmental practices is certified by the EMAS - European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme and the EcoLabel -European Union Environmental Label.

In addition to the concern related to its business Renova engages in educating Society and promoting activities that enhance the importance of respect over the Planet's Biodiversity, such as:

partnerships with Universities and Investigations Institutions for the development of environmental sustainable technologies;
Consumer educative marketing campaigns towards Recycled products;
Provision of agricultural land parcels to its employees for the practice of biologic agriculture;
Development of Centrals for Recycling practices in Portugal;
Campanha “Renova o teu Papel na UL” (Campaign Recycle your paper at the University of Lisbon”, consisting of a campaign where disposed office paper is collected from University of Lisbon by Renova, and 100% recycled toilet paper is returned;
“AmorCausa” (“LovePurpose” project), relating Renova with Contemporary Arts development, with François Rosseau photographer creating a book with photographs portraying the Beatitudes, a Universal text. The scenes were in Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, to which all the copyrights of the book were donated, towards well-being development NGO – ASPA;

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

Renova is committed towards the Well-Being of people and the Environment , which act as the driving forces of their business.
The company is conscious about the impact of its business, and challenges the standards by continuously improving its process towards sustainable practices.
In Renova Environmental Declaration it is stated that that environmental impacts have no throwback, thus it is their responsibility to integrate it in their mode of doing business for a vision of Future to be possible.
The company is addressing the unethical characteristic endowed to a paper disposal business in a proactive manner; by behind ahead of what is regulated.
Related to reduction of the levels of Water consumption, utilization of recycled materials as the prime resource; Water treatment stations and daily practices for Rio Almonda, the company's main water supply river, reduction of the usage of inorganic residues;

Moreover Renova extends its scope of action on Environmental awareness by trying to promote a movement together with its suppliers, partners, customers, employees and overall Society. This is aligned with its mission of fostering Well-Being from the most fundamental aspects.

From 2010 Environmental Declaration ruling, the foundations of Renova FPA, SA commitment with the Environment are as follow:

Protect the Ecological System and exploit natural resources and energy in a careful way;
Promote sustainable technology development;
Develop Environmental Sustainable collective awareness;
Strengthen the relationship with the citizens and the community;

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

In my opinion Renova is a trustful company hence its ethical values are at his roots, basis its business strategy. Its mission of promoting a “new well-being” reflects the awareness that our actions impact the World, and that the current state of order is not sustainable. Thus, its vision of the World is of one with Harmony and respect for the Nature, which will then foster well-being.
Moreover, its activities are all based on this view, being the structure of the company directed towards Environmental and Well-being practices.
Additionally, Renova engages in several actions to promote this vision of the world among Society. Which are often not mentioned, evidencing a truthful purpose, and not a PR purpose, meaning that Green Washing is certainly not the motive for Renova's Ethical practices.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

Renova should continue it's engaged with the Environment and the Society, fostering better business practices and sharing its holistic view of the World has it has been doing.

Improvements should consider production of recycled paper exclusively and continued effort to develop technologies reducing natural resources usage.

Moreover it should take advantage of its worldwide reputation, and make use of its Next Generation Brand Award to change the “rules of the game” in the tissue industry towards Environmental Sustainable practices exclusive. For that it should promote its efficient and ethically responsible strategy, which still allows for great profits.

SoleRebels

Esen, Hazal Sezer — 2013-06-07T09:46:40Z

1. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Company Background

SoleRebels is a footwear company founded in 2004 by company founder and managing director Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu in her community of Zenabwork, Ethiopia. SoleRebels began as an idea that the creation of shoes could be a platform for inspiration and hope. SoleRebels creates employment opportunities for the local society in Ethiopia.

SoleRebels is based on the revolutionary idea that to truly enjoy lasting development, developing nation producers should create, grow and control successful global brands and the equity developed in them, the very same formula that global brands in developed nations have so successfully deployed to build themselves and their countries.

In the period since the founding of the company in 2004, SoleRebels has not only emerged as Ethiopia's leading eco-ethical footwear brand, and one of the leading ones globally, but they are also the first WFTO/IFAT fair trade certified footwear firm in Ethiopia and the number one footwear exporter to the US market. SoleRebels is an active player in the changing dynamic of Ethiopia since they are helping the shift away from aid toward trade and furthermore to control the countries destiny by exporting higher value branded finished goods instead of low value commodity exports. SoleRebels ambition is to continue to nurture into a market leading global footwear brand.

The Main Facts About the Activities of the Company

SoleRebels is an innovative company committed to creating world-class footwear and apparel products and great community based jobs that create sustained prosperity. They do this by utilizing the immense, diverse, and sustainable materials and artisan arts of Ethiopia.

Their main production is footwear. They have selected to produce shoes since they have noticed that footwear was an excellent platform to begin to share many of the indigenous eco-sensible craft heritages and artisan talents that is very common in Ethiopia. Furthermore, they can source and make almost all their materials from the local society; thereby they could create an export product from 100% local inputs.
Moreover this fact allowed SoleRebels to riff, recreate and re-imagine the traditional “selate” and “barabasso” shoes, a recycled car tire soled shoe that has existed in Ethiopia for a long time. They have took this indigenous age-old recycling tradition and fused it with Ethiopian artisan crafts and modern design sensibilities and turned it into a market beating export brand that is now being retailed around the world.

Another important issue about the main facts of their activities is that they run a green business. They define themselves as “green by nature”. They use the terms like “historically eco-sensible” and “green by heritage” to describe this phenomenon. The key fact they want to express about their methods is that they are deeply sustainable and traditionally zero carbon way of production. They embrace these production methodologies, materials, ideas and ethos' because they are integral parts of Ethiopia's cultural fabric; a tradition which they have grew up within and feel passionately about preserving. In addition to recycled car tire soles, all of their styles incorporate as much recycled and sustainable materials as much as possible with ingredients like hand spun, hand loomed organic cotton fabrics, a pallet of unique natural fibers including abyssinian hemp and pure abyssinian koba and abyssinian pure leathers . All of their shoes are handcrafted which makes it a truly zero carbon production process.

What Is Unique About the Way SoleRebels Trade?

Sustainable Production

Ethiopia is said to be one of the birthplaces of cotton cultivation so cotton understandably occupies a central role in Ethiopian cultural life. They source their cotton from small scale heritage organic + traditional growers, ensuring that their customers get wondrously soft cotton and a historic crop continues to flourish. Ethiopia is also one of the last authentically organic environments in which cotton is grown. Owing to the privations endured, most small-scale cotton farmers never used anything more complex than animal dung as fertilizer. The support that they give to these small-scale farmers ensures not only their ability to grow their birthright crop in this traditional organic manner but also has a meaningful impact on the local + global ecosystem. They also line the shoe interiors and strap linings with the fabric made from this organic hand spun cotton.
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu (the founder and Managing Director of SoleRebels) explains the importance of cotton based on her own experiences:

“I grew up watching members of my family spin cotton with an inzert (the traditional wooden hand drop spindle used in Ethiopia for centuries to spin cotton.) The art of hand spinning of cotton in this manner dates back millennia here in Ethiopia and our artisans are among the finest. We also grew up watching shemmanies [weavers] hand loom the threads that we hand spun into magical gorgeous fabrics to make netalla, gabbis [traditional scarves, shawls and blankets worn widely in Ethiopia] on their simple wooden looms . These two functions – hand spinning and hand looming -which are integral to our production processes as well, are true examples of highly sustainable ZERO CARBON production that we have been utilizing here in Ethiopia for centuries.”

True Recycling

Another unique aspect of SoleRebels is that they benefit from historic recycling which is a way of life in Ethiopia. Due to having limited resources, everything is highly valued and everything has a purpose even if it is not the original purpose it was intended for. So, true recycling is a natural outcome of ingenuity and resourcefulness. For example the “barabassao” and “selate” recycled tire sole shoe have been widely worn in Ethiopia for years and are wonderful examples of this historic recycling ethos. As a company, SoleRebels fully embraces this ethos and craft their soles from recycled car tires as has been done for years.
In collecting and sorting “used tires” and hand cutting them into soles, they accomplish a few key things:

1. They ensure a perfectly fitted sole that is long lasting and very comfortable.

2. By using car tires as soles, (a loving recycling tradition) they ensure that a great recycling tradition endures.

3. Best of all, something that might otherwise go to waste now enjoys a dynamic, new and useful purpose while keeping their landfills less clogged and saving Co2 from being emitted when landfill bound tires are burned.

For the company, sustainability and cultural arts are living ideas that need to be redefined and re-interpreted to keep themselves contemporary, exciting and vital to people everywhere. That's why their products, while having a unique Ethiopia “splash” to them, are universal in their appeal and design. The company believes it is vital to keep the traditional elements that they craft their shoes but the way they style and craft their products is also important so that they can continue to have a deeply universal appeal. For this reason, they focus on developing new materials and products all the time. They experiment new weaves, finishing, materials, stitches all the time. Adding new pieces and series constantly keeps their offering very fresh and ensures that they always have fresh things to excite customers. They also co-develop products with all partners so as to be able to reflect the specific tastes of their specific market, be it in style or color or anything else. They are able to turn many new ideas into fully realized products within 3-5 working days.

Preserving Culture and Community

In Ethiopia, the idea of community still is very strong in many respects. This strength translates down to the idea that “you are responsible for more than yourself and your own narrow gain.” So, this gives business a perspective on looking out for the welfare of others around them. Taking this perspective a step further into the business realm, they are able to create a strong community centric business that looks at the total welfare being created from that business and not simply a static bottom line. The fact that they have the WFTO Fair Trade imprint on the company is the validation of what they already practice inherently because of the community and wider culture.

“The communal elements of the culture here still persist and these inform us deeply in terms of how we operate and respect for our community, the lands and resources. We feel passionately that Ethiopia has some powerful sustainable and “green” heritages to share with the world and some great ideas on how to make truly great and sustainable products. We are excited to share these ideas more widely in the coming years with more people around the world through our products.”
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

So, preserving cultural assets, maximizing recycling and eco-sensible products which are crafted from 100% local materials in the traditional manner is the unique aspect of the business. That way, SoleRebel gives to its customers incredibly cool and stylish things to wear and generates “zero” carbon impact. 100% local input means this is a deeply sustainable mode of production and export.

Most exports require a majority of inputs that travel huge distances to get to the final assembly point, enduring huge amounts of energy intensive processing along the way. Their model inverts that relationship and draws on locally sourced inputs, locally worked and processed for our export output. This model creates an elevated element of sustainability to the SoleRebels brand. Most importantly the very fact that the model is authentically Ethiopian that leverages heritages both culturally and material/production wise, this makes the business model as a big win for sustainable business models.

“I hope, people can start to appreciate that what we offer goes far beyond “green” labels and really extends in to meaningful ideas about sustainability, ecologically sound practices and authenticity. To me, the whole idea of “green,” -if we want to call it that- is really something which places like Ethiopia have something to offer to. Not just in terms of amazing products, but adding authenticity in the whole dialogue and drive towards sustainability in production and other areas.”
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

“We've been embracing and employing sustainability throughout our history, especially when it comes to the manufacture of certain things. So now it is appropriate that Ethiopia be rewarded, recognized and promoted for being, as we say, “green by heritage.””
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

The ethical challenges that the company is addressing:

The main ethical challenge that the company addresses is the creation of wealth for local community. SoleRebels generates real sustainable wealth by creating hundreds of creative, dignified and well-paying jobs inside the Ethiopian community. Bethlehem T. Alehu also adds that they are planning to add more real wealth as they create tens of thousands in the coming 36-48 months. At this moment, their prediction is to create over 1000 global jobs by 2016. According to the company, this is a key as SoleRebels emerges as the first African brand to become an international job creation powerhouse with international stores.

Another ethical challenge that is addressed and owned with the sustainable business model of SoleRebels is that they try to create more wealth for their supply network of entrepreneurs. They are expanding their network of local entrepreneurs who are actually their “suppliers web of material inputs.” This network also employs hundreds and creates multi-millions in local supplier purchases. According to company, this network is growing fast and is forecasted to employ tens of thousands by 2017!

Finally, the company is doing well by supporting the local communities and traditional crafts. SoleRebels are creating a state of the arts production facility that will preserve, promote and keep indigenous artisan crafts relevant through their continued use as inputs in their footwear products. They employ over 300 factory workers, many of whom had been unemployed for years before being hired. They earn around three times the average industry wage in Ethiopia and receive comprehensive medical coverage for their families including free doctor run medical checks.

SoleRebels has a very customer centric policy, what the company calls “Customer For Life”, which is supported by its Happysoles Guarantee Policy. They want customers to benefit from the exceptional level of service that they give. When the customers buy a pair of SoleRebels shoes, if they have any complaints they replace the order without any questions being asked until the customer is 100% satisfied and if the soles have worn, they replace them with new pair of shoes.

From the business perspective, maybe the biggest challenge for SoleRebels brand is to expand the definition of SoleRebels as a global brand and still stay committed to serving to customers and local workers equally well. Moreover, as the company grows bigger they might experience bigger challenges in terms of supporting local community and the development of Ethiopian crafts with good business practices and sustainability vision. SoleRebels pays high wages, try to provide a great relaxed work environment as they believe this is the way in which the workers get to maximize their potential and be a part of building an exciting global brand. Company is aware that this requires a constant dedication to worker happiness, and always tries to keep this vision on top of business practices. In fact, SoleRebels is the very first and only WTFO Fair Trade Certified footwear company and was always profitable enough.

What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why do you trust it?

SoleRebels is the world's first Fair Trade–certified footwear company.

SoleRebels have emerged as a brand from Ethiopia as a proactive idea. It embodies a vision which is focused on creating a brand and products which are gives back wealth to the society it has born in. They symbolize the richness of physical, cultural and intellectual resources of Ethiopia and create thousands of job opportunities to local workers, families, support artisans and many local entrepreneurs as suppliers. The company is creating a local value chain which is beneficial to many people and does this in a very sustainable vision and making great contributions to prosperity shared by the local people in Ethiopia. Also, by successfully marketing its products, they create another opportunity for foreign exchange growth and the development of the country. Although, we do not have exact figures of how much the company pays to its workers, the founder of the company claims that the wages are similar to what these international brand name charities pay to their staff.

We can also say that apart from the company ethos, the main idea behind the business model and what company believes is significantly important and also inspiring. The company believes that Ethiopia (and Africa) does not need NGO + Charity brands and what they really need is to have their own powerful brands whose global equity can leverage to their own good and most importantly in the creation of the prosperity that comes from well paid sustainable jobs.

The vision behind the company allows people to bring forth the abilities of local people and empower them to contribute their own society and prosperity by simply integrating what they have been doing so far. This is also a great opportunity for them to see their own potential and create their own opportunities to be more prosperous for themselves and families. We believe the model is a very sustainable way and promotes the vision of its founder which we found truly inspiring: “and the best way to create prosperity is the true and true method: create amazing products with service to match, pay your workers very well, operate in a highly ethical and transparent manner; all of which in turn create a hyper successful company.”

The SoleRebels model is a real example of what can happen when young and motivated and talented African entrepreneurs like Bethelehem, take on the global market, compete and win.

“The so called Philanthropic companies/projects cynically try to convince the world that Ethiopia or Africa is not even capable of putting shoes on the feet of our own people, and so they ask people to buy their shoes so that they can give an Ethiopian a free pair of shoes! Companies like this are simply different versions of the AID industry model that has paralyzed Ethiopia by constantly presenting us as “weak and helpless victims” always needing to be helped by some form of external assistance. Aid and charity in almost all their formats and configurations won't ever create jobs; cannot and never will create sustained prosperity, esp. in the Ethiopian or African context.”
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu

The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how do you think this company may improve?

SoleRebel was able able to build a global brand from the scratch and they are now able to market their product through Amazon. In 7 years they have increased their employees from 5 to 75. As the company enjoys the growth, the growth may bring challenges in the future. SoleRebel vision is built upon community based production. As they grow up and try to keep up with the market competition, they may have to concede some of their ethical practices. Supporting community can be more challenging.

Another important challenge is to find market. SoleRebel want to be the Nike of Ethiopia. So, they need to prove themselves in the market and develop a strategy for their unique products which offer local and traditional values.

Finally, as they plan to increase the number of employees to 300 in just 3 years and build a production facility powered by solar energy, we can say that company vision is very enthusiastic however they need a clear and effective future strategy to be successful.

Sonae

thevenoux — 2013-06-03T14:21:17Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Sonae is a Portuguese conglomerate created in 1959 by Alfonso Pinto Magalhaes. Nodaway, the company is owned and ruled principally by the Portuguese billionaire Belmiro de Azevedo and his family. The entry of Portugal in the European Union in 1986 correspond to a period of high development and growth for Sonae which diversified its activities in various sectors like food retailing, real estate, telecommunication and technology.

We will give examples of facts that make Sonae an ethic company.

Sonae established an environmental policy that basically says that all the business develop-ment of the company has to be based on an « eco-efficient management » which implies reducing the consumption of energy for the company and also to encourage suppliers to do the same. What is interesting in this case is that Sonae doesn't hesitate to « blackmail » the suppliers to make them eco-friendly. Moreover Sonae organize formations for its employees to make them more concerned about the environment.

Another activity of Sonae was the project “mission smile”, launched in 2003 to respond to the needs in medical furniture's for pediatric service in public hospital in Portugal. Sonae, threw its supermarkets chains, donated a part of its benefits on children products sales to fundraise the purchase of medical equipments. This resulted in the buying of more than 1500 health care equipment for 31 hospitals.

One other example of the environment protection engagement of Sonae is the participation threw Optimus, its telecommunication branch, to various reforesting actions like in October 2012 when Sonae took part to the plantation of hundreds of trees in a national park in Por-tugal after it was destroyed by a wildfire.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

As Sonae is operating in a lot of different industries the company faces different challenges. Here some of the main or generalised challenges the company has to deal with:
Especially now, in a crisis, everybody tries and has to cut costs. Many companies tried to minimize the crisis by cutting costs and therefore reducing quality. In the case of Sonae, they still want to offer high quality food. For them the challenge is how to offer high-quality food, but cut costs in order to still being competitive. An important way to achieve this is to improve efficiency; e.g. Sonae has already implemented the Supplier Portal or the Sonae Producers' Club to facilitate and support the communication process. It also helps to establish long-term contracts and stable relationships that are getting more and more important for a company.
Another challenge is to find new ways that allow a sustainable growth of the industries So-nae is operating in. This means new partners, new markets or new methods of financing. A possibility could be to find new markets abroad in countries with a better economic situa-tion. The challenge here could be to find a market that really contributes to the sustainable growth of the company. To find such markets they must be analysed in a long term perspec-tive. However, Sonae also has to be able to increasingly adapt faster and better to the needs of a market.
Furthermore Sonae has now to work even more on customer relationships, e.g. by enhancing the customer services and facilities. To maintain the loyalty of the customers, Sonae has to think about new values or reasons why customers should buy their products.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

Voted in 2013 by Ethisphere Institute and publicized globally through companies such as Forbes, SONAE is one among those companies who are recognized for its ethical practices. Its mission statement, which emphasizes social responsibility, claiming they improve the communities in which they operate and takes into account environmental concerns and pol-icies.
This company, which products range from food to financial investments, contains all types of products; however, strives for transparent business and governance practice. Transparency though has only a soft connotation is remarkably imperative to ethical contribution of a company. The lack of has caused multiple companies to become berated and immortally reprimanded by the world. This transparency that SONAE produces is both conclusive and meticulous and is available to the public to help stakeholders, government agencies, and consumers to see the company's plans. In this report, as I quote verbatim, is to inform “about the strategy, management system, performance and economic, social and environ-mental commitments of its activity.” (Sustainability Report, 2011)
Aside from transparency, SONAE also puts an emphasis on the environment and sustainabil-ity. SONAE Sierra, a sector of SONAE, has even gone so far as to implement the Planet Sierra Tenant Award. Indubitably bold, this award is given to 15 Tenants with the best environmen-tal practice. Also, in part of the Sustainability report, SONAE supplier chain is held in ac-countable the quality and work practices. In accordance with the SONAE Environmental Poli-cy, suppliers have checks and regulations regarding to the environment, working conditions, human rights, safety and quality.
This company is first Portuguese company to be part of the most ethical company in the world and has been on this ranking for three years now. Aside from the awards and recogni-tion, I believe that this company is ethical and I trust it. The praised 160+ page sustainability report; undeniably depict the transparent nature of this company. Touching upon business practices, environmental pursuits, company activities, and production and supply chain, it is evident that the company has nothing to hide.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The challenges facing the company in the future are focused in the crisis that is affecting the Mediterranean countries. More specifically the decreasing demand due to the restricted policies implemented for the Iberian governments. This has affected the company because an important part of their businesses are located in Portugal and Spain. To counteract this diminution of incomes from southern Europe the company is diversifying and investing in growing markets as Brazil to compensate and balance their accounts. Because of this de-creasing demand Sonae is closing some plants in Spain, Portugal, France etc. and opening new ones in growing markets. It is logical movement as a business management to search new opportunities and go where there are growing markets, the key here is try not to close and reduce the firings in crisis countries and maintain as much as possible the plants open thinking in a long run.

Ronald McDonald House Charities

sar.gaspar — 2013-06-03T10:58:09Z

Why this company?

The reason we decided to write our project about the Ronald McDonald Child fund is because it is an independent foundation that focuses on the well being of families and hospitalized children. Having a strong mission to improve the lives of these unwell children, the RMHC continually tries to develop their programs by concentrating on the important needs of the children. For 38 years the company has dedicated itself to build new houses and strong relationships with medical communities. They have demonstrated this as a result of operating by means of high accountability and transparency. Obviously they would not be in this formidable position they are today without the help of donors, staff, volunteers and friends. Overall, their strong motivation to accomplish their mission on the ground and their dedication to other charities has inspired us to learn more about this ethical association

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is a non profitable corporation that was established in 1978 in Philadelphia, the United States. The idea was born in the Children hospital of Philadelphia, where Fred Hill, the Philadelphia Eagles tight end spent day and night in the hospital with his daughter Kim Hill who was diagnosed with Leukemia. He and his wife did not leave the hospital´s bed side and spent their days in the hospital sleeping on couches and eating from vending machines. Observing other parents struggling with the same inconveniences gave Fred Hill the idea to build a house that would serve as a temporary home for families of children being treated at the Children Hospital. Nowadays, the Ronald Mc Donald Charity owns Ronald Mc Donald's houses within 48 countries and recently they opened their 309th Ronald Mc Donald House in Thailand. Besides building Ronald McDonalds houses, the nonprofit organization offers two other main programs, namely; the Ronald Mc Donald family room and the Ronald Mc Donald care mobile. All these programs are financed mostly by corporate donors and individual donors. Mc Donald´s is their largest corporate donor as they fund most of the RMHC´s operational costs. The RMHC donation boxes that are present in all McDonalds´ restaurants were found to be the largest source of income. Another initiative undertaken by McDonalds that raises high amounts of money is the foundation of a yearly Mc Happy Day. This day is organized to collect money for RMHC and other children charities around the world. Since 2002, more than $170 million has been raised through this initiative. This money is mainly used to sponsor the three main activities of the RMHC.
As already explained above, the Ronald McDonald House program aims at providing help to families so they can stay close to their hospitalized child. These houses make sure families can benefit from home cooked meals, private bedrooms and playrooms for children for free or only a small amount of money. Next to these, depending on the house, they propose special services such as special suites for children with suppressed immune systems, accredited education programs, recreation activities, non-clinical support services and sibling support services. The idea is that nothing else should matter when an ill child needs support from his parent. The second program at RMHC is called the Ronald McDonald Room. This is a special room present within Children hospitals. Studies revealed that severely ill children heal faster when their parents are in the neighborhood. This room allows parents to forget about their hospitalized child and to regroup in these rooms to share their feelings and thoughts with people who are in the same situation. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile program is the third program offered by the foundation. It implies vehicles built to offer pediatric health services in susceptible districts around the world. The costs of the vehicle are significant, approximately $500,000 per automobile. The vehicle comprises a laboratory, two patient examination rooms, a reception and medical records areas. Thanks to the close cooperation between the RMHC and local clinical service providers this unique project was made possible.
Next to financing their three core programs, RMHC also honors other nonprofit organizations. In case the mission of the charities aligns with the mission of RMHC, the organization offers them a grant for their effort. Next to that, the foundation also showed their dedication towards education as they provide over thousands of scholarships to U.S. students each year. In fact, since 1985, they have donated more than $48 million in scholarships.

B. The ethical challenges this company is addressing.

With Ronald McDonald House Charities, McDonalds is addressing the needs of families for financial support when their children are in need of medical treatment, be it because of injury, sickness, or general examinations. In addition, Ronald McDonald House Charities is also supporting other non-profit organizations and provides scholarships.
As many seriously ill or injured children need to get treatment far away from their original home, many families face difficulties bringing up the necessary resources to stay close to their child. The Ronald McDonald House charity addresses this challenge by providing the families in need with a “home-away-from-home” for little or no cost, enabling them to stay close to their hospitalized child. Further, families can completely focus on caring for their child or communicating with the medical team as the charity provides them with everything they need. Hence, they offer a thorough solution to the challenge of financing a stay away from home and allow a better healing process for the children as they can rely on the support of their families.
Next, the Ronald McDonald Family Rooms offers an opportunity to the parents of hospitalized children to rest and regroup while still staying close to their children. In the friendly and deflecting atmosphere families can recover from the deep psychological challenges of supporting your ill child and regain the strength that is needed to continue doing so. This again supports the child's healing process and lets the parents better communicate with the medical team as well as it improves devotion to complex treatment procedures.
Many children are unable to receive the treatment desperately needed for them to survive simply because either the services needed are not close by or their parents do not possess the means to acquire them. This challenge is addressed by the Ronald McDonald Care Mobiles. These care mobiles operate in vulnerable areas of the U.S. and around the globe in order to prevent illness, by providing education, offer treatment, such as immunization, preventive check-ups and treatment for chronic and acute illness, and referrals to help families get to continuous care by primary doctors.
In addition to improving the health of children directly, Ronald McDonald House Charities also supports other non-profit organizations that help children by providing them with grants. By doing so, Ronald McDonald House Charities is tackling the problem of insufficient funding in the areas where it is needed the most at that point in time. This makes it possible for charity organizations to offer children help where before they had to reject them due to insufficient monetary resources.
Last, Ronald McDonald House Charities offers children scholarships who have proved academic achievements, leadership and community involvement but who lack the necessary financial resources to attend college. This enables the students not only to reach their full potential but also to achieve a successful career and later support their families.
Overall, Ronald McDonald House Charities make a world of difference for the families who are in need for financial support, may it be to afford staying together in another city while a child is undergoing treatment, offer the treatment needed for their children or financing the education that would otherwise be detained.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

The main reason we believe this company is ethical starts with its challenges. As explained in the previous sections, the charity organization creates, finds and supports programs to improve and make a positive impact on the health, well-being and children's lives. They help and provide solutions that strengthen families during their most challenging times. The objective of the organization is not only to help needy families to stay close to their hospitalized child directly but also collaborate with other non-profit organizations that align with the same mission, as well as committed to education with scholarships. In fact, the RMCH's success relies on a special partnership between medical community, members of the business community, and individuals who donate time and money to the organization.
Thanks to all the grants, children can rely on the support of their families, and families can focus on caring them, apart from other support programs of psychological challenges that facilitates a better relationship between the parents and the medical team. On the other hand, McDonald Care Mobiles that operates in vulnerable areas of the U.S and around the globe to prevent illness and providing education, really caught us, as it helps children that desperately need treatment but cannot access to it. Last, the organization also has scholarships that facilitate students to reach a successful career. All these are inspirational for us and we highly value the work performed by the charity and the way it is done, as it makes every day a great change for the needy children and, hence, for their families.
As a matter of a fact, Ronald McDonald Charity House is characterized by transparency and working in public on the record in accountability and performances. All the aids and support programs are contrasted by evidences of the families the organization has helped published on the website, as well as the audited financials, donor privacy policies and the board members, which are also easily accessible on the charity's website.
Next, we greatly value other aspects of the organization, as it has independent voting board members, the CEO listed with salary and it shares their conflict of interest policies with the public. This is certainly a transparent and reliable charity we trust and believe in, from the very beginning of its objective, through the way it operates, to the cleaning system it works with.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

Currently there is and in the (near) future there could be another economic crisis, especially charity funds suffer in times of economic crisis. People are less willing to give to charities and prefer to spend as less as possible. The only organization Ronald McDonald's Charity House is linked to at the moment is McDonald's corporation itself. We think that the charity fund could expand their fundraising network by connecting themselves to other companies like supermarkets.

Ronald McDonald's Charity House has to improve their scholarship program to all the countries they operate in, instead of just the US. Creating more awareness for the scholarship program will improve the connection the charity fund has to students and their parents. The link between the charity house and the fast-food chain is something that still bothers people. Informing the public about the vision and mission of the charity fund is essential to make them understand the difference between the fast-food chain and the charity fund.

There are currently 322 Ronald McDonald's Houses in 52 countries and regions, 161 Ronald McDonald's Family Rooms in 19 countries and regions and 43 Ronald McDonald's Care Mobiles in 6 countries. It is clear that the charity fund is doing a really good job. What bothers us is that McDonald's restaurants are found in 119 countries. We think that since the charity fund is linked to the McDonald's Corporation, the charity fund should operate in all the countries the restaurants are located in.

E. Evolution of the company's evaluation

In the first part about the general information of the study, the information as well as the financial key figures have been organized and updated. Further, additional figures such as those from comparable charities have been added. This allows a better overview and gives more ground on which to evaluate the charity.
As the information on the main activities of the company provided in the existing report was rather scarce, the new report expands on this in order to gain a deeper understanding of the processes and activities. This is done by providing a general overview of the activities and then adding further information as well as a historical context.
Next, the ethical challenges that Ronald McDonald House Charities is addressing have so far been kept rather general. The new report offers a deeper insight into how the activities of the previous part affect the parents and their children. Thereby, an understanding of the direct consequences of the charity's activities and the following improvement of ethical challenges can be obtained.
In addition, the part of why we believe the company is really ethical and why we trust it has been expanded by adding an objective evaluation to the already present subjective appraisal. In this part, the assessment of the company's structure and governance add valuable insights and arguments for the question at hand. Also, the explanation of the personal judgment has been extended by the valuation of the different activities.
Last, the possible future challenges and recommendations have been adjusted to the economic changes and expanded by suggesting further possibilities. Moreover, current inefficiencies have been criticized and suggestions for future improvements are made.
Overall, the report has been enhanced by adding more detailed information, updating the existing information and analyzing the two former to an extent that provides a thorough understanding of the company's operations and its ethical behavior.

Turkish Airlines

turkislam — 2013-06-03T10:43:38Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Turkish Airlines is the leading flag carrier airline of Turkey, headquartered in Istanbul. It operates scheduled services to 187 international and 35 domestic airports, serving a total of 222 airports, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas as of April 2013. With an increase to 99 destination countries, the carrier's destination network from one hub is the world's largest. Also with 222 destination numbers, the airline 4th biggest carrier in the world by number of destinations. Apart from these successful numbers, Turkish Airlines is widely known for its sponsorships for Euroleague Basketball and famous football teams such as FC Barcelona, Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund.

In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 THY carried 17.0 million, 19.7 million, 22.5 million, 25.1 million, 29 million, 32.6 million and 39 million passengers with total revenues of US$2.23, $3.0, $4.5, $4.0, $5.6, $7.1 and $9.0 billion, respectively. The airline has approximately 16,000 employees. It has been a member of the Star Alliance network since 1 April 2008. Company also owns or co-owns other companies such as AnadoluJet, SunExpress, THY Turkish Technic, THY Turkish DO & CO, Turkish Ground Services, HABOM Aviation Maintenance Repair and Modification Center, Turkish OPET Aviation Fuels, Pratt&Whitney THY Turkish Engine Center (TEC), Goodrich Turkish Airlines Technical Service Center, Turkish Cabin Interior Systems Industries Inc., Aircraft Seat Manufacturing Industry & Trade Inc., TURKBINE Technical Gas Turbines Maintenance & Repair Inc. and THY Aydın Çıldır Airport Management Inc.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

Due to the firm's operations, the most significant problematic area is environment and carbon emissions. Aircrafts consume huge amounts of fuel and release carbon.

Providing and maintaining a level security in its services is one of the most important responsibilities.

In addition, the company has responsibility towards its customers, employees and society, just like any other company.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

Turkish Airlines puts efforts to decrease environmental damage. During 2012 there was a decline of 21,800 tons in the amount of fuel consumed, while the amount of CO2 generated decreased by approximately 68,700 tons.

Company works on most efficient use of fuels, and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while never losing sight of flight safety. These efforts resulted in a year-on-year decline of 21,800 tons in the amount of fuel consumed, while the amount of CO2 generated decreased by approximately 68,700 tons. These gains were achieved largely through more efficient in flight piloting practices, as well as through a significant reduction in total aircraft weight by only taking on as much fuel as necessary for a flight.

Turkish Airlines complies with European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) and its regulations. Under this emission-trading scheme, airlines must buy Carbon Credits in the market in situations where they exceed the maximum carbon emission limit prescribed by the authorities to which they are responsible. Within this scope, and as one that executes EUA, EUAA, ERU and CER transactions, the Company has obtained certificates to be used within certain periods.

Turkish Ground Services (TGS), which is a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and HAVAS (an airport ground handling services company), besides having some quality and management certifications, also emphasizes social and environmental aspects of quality, having obtained Airports Friendly to the Disabled Certification and Green Airport Certification.

The company also uses its facilities to respond to the society's needs in times of trouble. For example, in 2011, when an earthquake in the east of Turkey happened, THY added 10 flights in 2 hours to the area to transport Search & Rescue teams and doctors. Then they sent 7 cargo plains to the area to transport food and all other required materials.

Again, in 2011, when there was a drought in Somalia, Turkish Airlines employees, like employees of other companies, started a campaign to collect money, food and other scarce items. The company than transported these 165 tones goods to Somalia free of charge. Company provided aid jointly with Turkish Red Crescent in the times of similar disasters in Turkey as well as internationally.

As part of its Social Responsibility activities, the firm started a campaign in 2012 to plant a tree for each child between the ages of 0-2 travelling with THY. They also provide the opportunity for other travellers to make a contribution to the project by paying a small fee. THY also gives transport sponsorships to cultural and educational activities.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The aforementioned challenges will continue to be faced by company in the future. In addition, improving technology and higher levels of competition these challenges will become harder. The company may be tempted to lower its security standards in order to increase profitability but regulations against this problem may be helpful in maintaining a required level of safety. Of course, it's just as important for the company to exercise its ethical values when facing this challenge.

Kickstarter

Gerard — 2013-06-03T10:01:40Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Kickstarter is an online platform where people upload projects for being financed. The financing process consists of what we know as crowd funding. Crowd funding is a system through which different people all around the world can finance different projects with their donations. It is basically seen as a collective effort of individuals who network and collect their money to support projects initiated by other people or organizations, usually via online. The basic crowd funding categories are: medical expenses, start creative projects (the one Kickstarter is carrying out) and business, sports, volunteer trips, and animals foundation.
As for Kickstater, it is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology can be financed. Kickstarter doesn't engage any kind of financing activity. What the company does is to provide the platform to introduce the creator of the projects to the backers, who are the ones that make donations. Kickstarter acts as an intermediary, creators independently create their project and upload it with all the information on the online platform, and backers are the ones who have the task of donating money and believing in the projects. Therefore, as an intermediary, Kickstarter does not have any kind of responsibility on the problems that may arise from the projects.
Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing, that means that creator sets a funding goal and a deadline, so whoever that pledges on this project will be charged by the pledged amount only if the goal is accomplished before the deadline. Otherwise, if the money donated does not achieve the minimum established at the beginning, there will be no money transference. The all-or-nothing method will motivate backers that want the project to be successful to spread the word. This turns out to be quite useful: of the projects that have reached 60% of their funding goal, 98% were successfully funded. So in some sense we could establish that projects either find little support or make their goal.
As an intermediary, Kickstarter will charge a fee of 5% from all the money pledged. As the financing transaction only exists if the goal of pledges is achieved, the company will only charge the fee if the project is successfully financed. On the other hand, backers don't get any equity from the project funded. They are rewarded from the creators, but not in economic terms. For instance, if the project consists of making a music album, a reward may be the CD signed.
In this company money is secondary and entrepreneurship through other people help is primary. It is much more than a business.
→In addition…
In the website, creators have the “Kickstarter School” available, which is a page that gives tips in order to help them (how to keep backers informed, how to make your project more appealing, how to gain their trust…)
Mozart, Beethoven, Whitman, Twain, and other artists funded works in similar ways — not just with help from large patrons, but by soliciting money from smaller patrons, often called subscribers.
Important projects financed in Kickstarter: Six Kickstarter-funded films have been nominated for Academy Awards. One of them, Inocente, came away with an Oscar in 2013, and at least a dozen projects have launched objects into space.
Kickstarter from outsider's eyes:
· “Paradigm shifting”: by CNN.
· “Pioneering”: by The New York Times.
· “Kickstarter funds the future”: by Rolling Stone.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

In this world exist a big deal of good ideas which have not the possibility to become a reality because a lack of funds for them. This people trust in the economic system, banks and other financial institutions trying to raise their funds in order to achieve their ideas. But nowadays, crisis make the banks unconvinced to fund people projects, so if you don't have a non-risky project or some kind of convincing endorsement you are not able to start new projects.
These people exist, their projects exist in their minds, and maybe some of them are useful for the society in terms of necessities, entertainment or inspiration. Why doesn't society promote these ideas to come true? Why investors promote and fund projects but only if they are profit oriented and near to zero risk?
All this makes us wonder about the ethicality of this financing world. It is understandable not to finance projects that might be very risky. But nowadays the financing system rejects projects too easily, just because people do not have any endorsement, or if the project is peculiar and different from the most common ones. That is where Kickstarter appears and faces this ethical challenging, by opening the doors both to the creator to receive funds and the society by supplying an opportunity to choose the projects they want to be launched. As it has been explained in the previous point all interested people who has been inspired by some others ideas and project can contribute to make the project came true.
After the huge crisis we are living, structural changes in the banking system must be done, and we consider crowd funding as a good step for starting this shift. No more powerful investors and banks are need to raise the needed capital at exchange of equity and inculcating their own ideas maybe not aligned with the creators ones.
This renewed concept of creators and backers can allow society to play its own rules in order to convert their ideas. The biggest ethical challenge that Kickstarter is addressing is to create a people to people relation that could be considered as ethical banking, where risk premiums, interest, or endorsements would decrease their importance in favor of trust, hard work, and risky but innovative ideas supported by other people in the world.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

We decided Kickstarter because is a company that helps to meet one of the most important and demanded necessities in the world (the necessity of being financed) in a completely different way compared with the traditional financial system. What makes the company different is how they handle the financial process: they put in contact people who need to be financed with people willing to help them not because of profit aims but because many other reasons (they believe in the project, they are passionate about it, they are interested in it despite not receiving money rewards, they are inspired by the new idea…).
It inspires us in the sense that we look at it as a very attractive alternative to the shareholder-centric model. Kickstarter could be situated extremely far away from the money-focused system that leads the financial world, because its non lucrative perspective allows many projects that would be rejected within the traditional model to take off and even to succeed. Therefore, it provides a “second opportunity” to those projects not considered by the traditional banks. The company provides an opportunity to open the door to a much wider variety of ideas and allow everyone to decide what they wanted to see exist in the world. Therefore we can consider it as a way for the society to start deciding the projects they would rather see to be launched. The fact that Kickstarter allows creators to take risks and attempt to create something new is a feature, not a bug.
One of the main issues that also inspire us is the fact that the company helps financing projects that must be creative, and more important, that will not be used to buy any kind of material object, but for finance projects that consists of engaging different kind of activities. That is to say, projects that have the possibility to innovate, create something new and different, and that may involve positive consequences for the creator or even the society. Therefore, the company does not allow charity, cause, or “fund my life” projects. In our opinion, Kickstarter supplies a very useful alternative, giving the opportunity to create your own job or project rather than having to look for one. And it is extremely useful given the times we are living now.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

We think that the main challenges that Kickstarter has to face have to do with publicity and with acquiring more responsibility with the backers, to get involved a little bit more. As it is something quite new and is still growing, Kickstarter and the concept crowd funding are not very famous, so in our opinion the company should make an effort to make a name of itself in the financial world. And as it starts growing and dealing with more important projects, it is important to improve the accountability and fulfillment.

As we have already said, Kickstarter is just the provider of the connection, but the company does not assume any responsibility. From an ethical point of view, it may be seen as quite selfish. If they provide an online platform for creators to upload the project, the company should also face more strict guidelines and requirements to increase the security: provide information about the creators' backgrounds and experience, more specific plans… to make sure the backers have sufficient information when deciding whether to back these projects. It is quite clear that as its importance in the society increases, the more responsibility the company has.
These efforts must be focused on making sure creators do not fraud, but it does not have anything to do with the creator's ability to complete a project and fulfill. On Kickstarter, backers ultimately decide the validity and worthiness of a project by whether they decide to fund it. So the company may face the challenge of assuring that everything that is uploaded in the website is real, but we think they cannot be obligated to “rate” each creator with his or her capacity to fulfill the project, this study must be carried out or analyzed by the backers.

José Cuervo

diegoaspiazul — 2013-06-03T09:49:46Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

BACKGROUND.-

*The history of José Cuervo tequila goes further back than the history of Mexico as a free country.

*More than 10 generations have gone by, and now José Cuervo is the number one producer of tequila worldwide.

MAIN ACTIVITIES.-

*The main activities of this company are producing, exporting and distributing different tequila products, with high quality standards and social responsible practices.

*Being the number one producer and exporter of Tequila, they have a brand presence on over 100 countries worldwide

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

*Being an alcoholic beverage business may make you face a bad reputation towards the public, specially when trying to demonstrate their commitment towards social responsibility.

*José Cuervo company tries to demonstrate this by being leaders in their industry, employing people from local communities and being leaders in innovative ways to grow Agave and for green processes.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

*With lots of CSR programs starting to be implemented by many companies around the world is hard to distinguish which initiatives are ethical and which ones are just a way of cleaning companies public images.

*But, José Cuervo has Social Responsibility imprinted in their DNA, with over 250 years of philanthropic activities.

*For example, in the 1920´s the company made a donation to the people of Tequila, México of a cemetery, destined specially for the people with less resources.

*In 1998, José Cuervo company founds the José Cuervo Foundation.
Has been awarded with the Best Employers in LatinAmerica acknowledgment.

*The José Cuervo Foundation, is invested in enhancing the quality of lifes of the communities they work with.

*They created their own scheme of Integral Model of Local Development (IMLD), used to promote the social, cultural, educational and economical development of local communities. (This can be recreated by many companies in various locations)

SCOPES OF ACTION.-
*Health.- Individual Healthcare, Operation Smile, Anti Diabetes Programs, Cataracts Operations, etc.

*Education.- Adult Education, Development of Schools, Values Education, Computer Donations, etc.

*Housing.- Various housing projects.

*Economic Development.- Support to local artisans, Development of the Tequila Route giving income to the local communities, working with the BID (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo) with micro credits to small businesses, amongst other initiatives.

*Culture.- Music schools, Theatre, Reading Programs for children, Tequila cultural festival, etc.

*Green projects.- Reforestation, Preservation of the water, etc.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

The main challenge for José Cuervo is the perception of alcoholic beverage impact on society and the ethical compromises this suppose.

I think that they may be able to put a little more thought on being more environmentally friendly in their production.

But they have been doing a good job in social responsible programs, and the José Cuervo Foundation does a great job on that. If they continue with this initiative and invest more in it they will be able to transform the lives of many people, which is invaluable.

Patagonia

patagonia — 2013-06-03T09:45:19Z

A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Patagonia's most important business –started in 1973 in California- is the design and the distribution of high quality mountaineering apparel, especially for rock and alpine climbing. Throughout the years, the business has expanded, including in its product portfolio other's sports such as yoga, ski, snowboarding, fly fishing, surfing and trial running clothing.

Patagonia's special characteristics lie in their commitment with their employees and the environment. The company gets sure that all their products are produced under safe, fair, legal and humane working conditions throughout all the supply chain. That's why they ask for their partners in the business to ensure these conditions, too. Every person around the world that sews a Patagonia product has to be given the same good labor conditions. Also, they have a flexible time policy, so their employers are able to have time to practice sports like surfing, snowboarding and so.

In the environmental side, they have learned how to make their production processes more environmental friendly. They have developed technologies that make it possible to recycle water bottles to convert them into jackets or how to save as much paper as possible in their catalogs, as some example. And even they publically admit they are not responsible enough, they give one percent of their sales to grassroots activists and non-lucrative organizations defenders of the environment. Also, they strongly believe in comunitary commitment, so they have created some organization in order to make business fairer. Some of them are European Outdoor Conservation Association or the Fair Labor Association.

As they say in their webpage, this is not philanthropy, but a desire to compensate the environment for the still big damage they are causing.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

The mission of Patagonia when it was created was “build the best product, do the least harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis”. So over the years, Patagonia has collaborated with other companies to develop and create initiatives with the goal of reducing the environmental footprint business leave behind.

- 1% for the planet: this association is an alliance of business that donates 1% of their sales to environmental organizations to support sustainability and the preservation of the environment. Patagonia has contributed with more than $46 million dollars in donations.
- Common threads initiative: is a partnership with Patagonia and their customers to buy and use clothes more sustainably. This initiative embraces the concept of Repair, Reuse, Reduces, Recycle, Reimagine. They encourage customers not to buy too much, even Patagonia product that they do not really need, so the firm creates good quality products to prolong the lifecycle of their clothes. They encourage also customers to repair their textiles or if they no longer want the product to donate them to a charity. For these textiles that could not be donate or repaired Patagonia offers to recycle them. Since 2005 Patagonia has recycled more thant34 tons of textile in new clothes.
- Conservation alliance: Patagonia collaborates in an association that encourages business to contribute with environmental organizations.
- Bluesign Standard: Patagonia's intention is to reduce also the resource consumption of their activities. They collaborate with bluesign technologies to reduce their environmental impact

Patagonia is also involved in the creation of a natural Parks in South America (Argentina and Chile) with a project called Conservación Patagonia

Furthermore, Patagonia also promotes fair labor practices and ensures good working conditions trough the supply chain in their factories following always strictly examinations as members of the Fair Labor Association.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

What we like of Patagonia is this coktail of developing a business (and of course, make profits) with a really strong ethic thought beyond this business.

The main reason why we can trust in Patagonia project is really ethical is because first came the idea to develop high quality clothes for this kind of mountain sports, and the cames the success (translated in the expansion of Patagonia around the world, an increase in sales every year and higher profits every year). Unlike many business, the idea of the creator of the firm is to make money and then he thinks what he can create to make money, and Patagonia was'nt created following this road. Moreover, the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, since the beggining of the firm has been involved in changing this business according to the social corporate responsability and always respecting the enviroment. In addition, the succes of the firm has not changed the ethic code of the firm, the succes has been the main thing to keep working stronger with the ethic code and thanks to the success, to have more resources and money to dedicate to this activities.
Some ethic's about Patagonia: use of organic cotton, decent treatment of the workers in their factories, they wont work with factories that have children under 15, over the past 20 years we have given nearly $40 million in cash and in-kind donations to environmental causes.

What is really interesting to see is how a business with an strong ethic code since the beggining has continued having this code and doesn't lose it. So, apart of the high quality clothes, one of the reasons why Patagonia has been succesful for sure is the ethic code and this strong and powerful relationship with theconservation of the enviroment. It makes the people who buy Patagonia produts to feel better buying their clothes because they all are people very related with enviroment and sports mountains who loved nature, and they prefer to buy Patagonia products before to buy another mountain clothes of for example, Nike.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

Patagonia had set a very important objective for the future, which is setting up an important campaign for responsible capitalism, to prevent environmental collapse. The firm had launched this year a two-year campaign which will challenge the very foundations of our capitalist system. This decision came from “don't buy this jacket” advertisement campaign, where the firm wanted to make aware the costumers about the overconsumption in US Black Friday and sales periods. This responsible two-year campaign aims for finding new measures of success that do not depend only on selling huge quantities of it's product, and how a responsible economy would look like. A positive factor of the campaign is to aware public opinion about the fact that there is possible to find another definition of success that it's not related with profit maximization and it's not based on the consistent expansion of the whole economy.

The company had done a substantial work to engage consumers in a continuing dialogue. The global costumers perception value will have to change, they had to be aware of the contents of the clothes that they're going to buy (what components are used on the fabrics and also how the buttons, zippers or garments are made of). That's the reason why the firm had a mid-term objective of informing the consumers about it's production processes, using social media and new technologies, for example, promoting it's activities towards firm's website.

Altough the company had made an important effort for being sustainable than most other clothing firms, it states that it still has a long way to go, for instance, the firm admits that still uses some materials that are environmentally destructive in zipping and dyeing processes. One reason that could explain this issue is the fact that the company has high quality standards that are really difficult to reach with alternative products. At least, the firm had recognized that there are some ethical issues to improve, and this would be the first step to be a completely ethical firm.