Great Lakes Green Pages

I read an interesting blog post at Green LA Girl.  It was about the dilemma of continuing to support green companies, even though they are being bought up by less than green conglomerates. I highly recommend that you take a minute, click over and read the article. It has interesting information and great links to more information. The issue is this: When a company that has been traditionally a great green company gets bought up by a less than green conglomerate, do you continue to support it?

Basically, the problem is that true die hard consumers who are working really hard to support only the best companies for the environment, are having to face an ethical quandary. Many large corporations are not very environmentally friendly. Some have a downright terrible history when it comes to planetary concerns. Merger and acquisition departments, however, are smart and know a good thing when they see it. They have been snapping up these small but growing companies whenever they can. This allows these smaller companies to access capital to expand and utilize stronger distribution networks. That is good news for small companies like Burt’s Bees. Once only distributed with organic products and available at natural food stores, they can now be found at mainstream supermarkets across the country. The profits, however, are now going to support Clorox. But could a company like Burt’s Bees or Tom’s of Maine (now owned by Colgate) be able to continue their good work without this buyout? While they may not have died out completely, these companies who are bought out by conglomerates are seeing unprecedented growth.

Once again, we are seeing how difficult being green can truly be. It is never a matter of buying green or not, but buying the best product for you and your life at any given moment. While overall, I think that when you can, you should support smaller companies with the best track record. That is not always possible. Furthermore, when bought out by large corporations, smaller companies now have to report to a board of directors whose biggest concern is usually return on investment. By contrast, a smaller company is free to follow their primary mission objectives. This means that they can be more concerned with the environment, their employees, or social By being a part of a larger conglomerate, a company like Honest Tea (which is an organic, fair trade product) has access to all the outlets where Coke can be found. Being available at convenience stores and gas stations means a big boost in sales. The more the sales, the more fair trade organic tea that must be produced to meet their needs. That means more land being converted to organics, more tea workers being paid a living wage. It also means that some of the core values could be sacrificed along the way to meet minimum profit returns as demanded by the parent company.

What do you do as a consumer? Do you switch to a new brand, diverting your consumer dollars to a new company that remains completely loyal to its core mission values. Or do you continue to support your favorite brands in the hopes of increasing market share and making them more profitable? My thoughts lie somewhere in the middle. I want to support the company that is doing the most good. On the other hand, by continuing to buy Burt’s Bees products, it might make that division of Clorox more profitable and encourage that larger company to take steps to make other divisions of their conglomerate greener, or add more organics, or other green ideas. It does come down to money, and if we abandon our favorite products because we hate the parent company, then there is no incentive for large multi-national companies to try and better their social responsibility or use better ingredients.

While working for a grocery store chain called Nature’s Fresh Northwest in Portland, Oregon, we opened new stores in less than traditional markets for natural foods. In order to meet the demands of the local consumer base, more conventional products were introduced into these stores. The idea was that these conventional groceries were going to be bought anyway, and by allowing them to be purchased within the Nature’s store, it would attract more consumers. Furthermore, by keeping those consumers in the store they would be introduced to new and better products. This strategy had some merits in that by buying Coca Cola in our store, some shoppers were less likely to make another stop at a conventional store. This means they were more likely to do more shopping within our store and then make healthier choices in other categories. In a similar way, by having Stonyfield Farms Organic yogurts as a part of the same company that owns Dannon, organic yogurt is available at a better price and can be found in Wal Mart. This means access by a larger demographic. In a city like Cleveland, that can mean a lot to the average consumer who doesn’t or cannot shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s.

Tell me what you think? How do you approach this dilemma?