Vine

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

Vine.com belonging to Quidsi company which has been takeover by Amazon in 2010.This is a newly established website. It sells green products to those who concerns about the environment.

Cleaning supplies, babies-kids products, facial products and clothes….Although it seems that the business scope of the Vine is very large, the company has its high standards which must meet the following conditions: products designed without harmful toxins, made from sustainable materials, energy efficient, natural, organic, powered by renewable energy, reusable and water efficient.
Vine.com define a "green" product as one that is made with healthy, environmentally sound ingredients and materials — a product that, at its core, is better for you and better for the planet. For example, the bamboo material chopping board is to meet the conditions because the bamboo is one of the sustainable materials. By this analogy, Reusable cloth, cosmetics do not contain preservatives and so on, all can find out on the Vine.com.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

1.Since Vine.com is a newly established e-commerce company, how far can it go in this green philosophy is a big problem. Will it give way to “profit” remains unknown.
2.Vine.com is very small in scale compared with other e-commerce companies. It will be easy for them to accept the green corporate culture at first. As it grows, can the new employees all identity the culture from the inside?
3.The product as is described online are all made from sustainable materials, energy efficient, natural, organic, designed to remove toxins, powered by renewable energy, reusable, water efficient. But how can Vine.com prove the customers the authenticity of the products.

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

1.Their leaders
As the CEO of the Vine.com Josh Dorfman revealed: save our earth may not necessary to create this green product, but he considered their efforts have meaning as long as the Vine.com could play a role to save the earth, even only a little effect. Dorfman once created a lazy environmental protection books、radio and TV programs. He also expressed to many mother that if you’re very care about the save and health of your baby, if you feel no harmful chemical composition of green products have advantage to baby healthy growth. Then the Vine.com could make you relieved in this respect
For example, some of the consumers said that the products of the vine.com were not nature enough. Josh had a quick response to let the suppliers to check their own products to ensure compliance with environmental standards, and it must go through scanning to ensure that these products do not contain any forbidden ingredients.
Another example, Seventh Generation was one of the first sponsor of the Vine.com. But it’s packing of product was not natural enough. The Vine.com firmly returned the goods and required the manufacturer confirmed their products to meet the specific criterion.
2.Their actions
Besides offer the green product, the Vine.com also caters to some other improvements which concern the public welfare. For example, part of the production address is located in the consumers’ residence within 100 miles. This can reduce the power consumption of transportation. They promised that no matter how they do business, it would spare no efforts to environmental protection. Vine.com doesn’t want to be the largest online shopping mall but to be the greenest. In addition to products beside, the overall operation mode is all according to the green environmental protection purpose to operate.

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

1. How to keep green for the successors
The CEO of vine.com is Josh Dorfman now, who is the creator and host of The Lazy Environmentalist, a nationally broadcast radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio that informs consumers about cutting-edge, eco-friendly products and services. It will be easier for vine.com to be ethical with such a leader. But whether the successors to be the same as Josh is hard to say. Maybe he or she would give way to profit.
The solution to this problem is setting “Green” as a Key Performance Indicators for the CEO.
2. How to avoid the deceptiveness of the suppliers.
Even if Vine.com is green itself, the suppliers might lie to them and customers. How can it find out the deceptiveness of the suppliers to make sure the products it sells are purely green to consumers? The solution is to set up a strict quality supervision system such as an independent third party to secure the authencitity.
3. How to balance profit and ethics
The best situation is making profit while being ethics. Since what vine.com sells are all green products better for you and better for our planet, it is much easier. But there is a line in between profits and ethics. The solution is to set a goal and use the surplus money to do some philanthropy benefit for the social.