Comments on: Fortune: The e-postgirl rings twice

By: cityhippy

cityhippy — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 10:17:25 +0000

How he can give any credibility to that list itself is testimony to how much of a skim job he did.

How can anyone in the US talk about socially responsible companies without talking about companies like Wholefoods (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/) and Interface (http://www.interfaceinc.com/)? They are real leaders in CSR terms.

You have done a superb job in establishing fact from the murky depths of Starbucks information, inescapable, unavoidable fact.

We all know that Starbucks are not perfect. We know they mean well and are nice people. We also know that their actions speak louder than words. We know they have issues with the Fairtrade procedures and processes. We know they care more about their inhouse C.A.F.E. standards than they do about Fairtrade. We know that they want to see Fairtrade demand rise before committing further yet they do not promote Fairtrade coffee which keeps demand low. We know they could buy more. We know there is plenty of good quality coffee out there. We know they could promote Fairtrade coffee just like they promote their other brands. We know they don’t. We know what that means. We know it means they do not really buy into Fairtrade. If they did why would they NOT promote it? We know!

I would be surprised if you hear back from this guy to be honest.

Namaste

By: Gernot

Gernot — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:32:38 +0000

well done! keep pushing!

By: esteban

esteban — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 07:01:21 +0000

Siel, you’re a rock star!

By: Jasmin

Jasmin — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 02:06:08 +0000

Way to go!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 00:33:47 +0000

You rock, Siel!! Well thought out and delivered responses.

I just glanced at the article and it was pretty fluffy. The UPS bit about the 1,500 alternative fuel vehicles - numbers are meaningless without context - I had looked up some info on them the other day and their entire fleet is 88,000 vehicles. Also, I love the line “They hire a lot of immigrants and poor people…” Er… what a wordsmith. (BTW - You can see my short post on this, and their short response here: http://workerbees.typepad.com/hipandzen/2006/02/ups_leads_the_w.html#comments

I think you’re right about the greenwashing. It’s important to highlight big corporations in their baby steps towards sustainability as long as it’s noted that these are baby steps. Without the context you provided, it’s easy to believe that Starbucks is the most conscious corporation out there, and they still have work to do.

See you Friday at the party!
:) Melissa

By: mateotemprano

mateotemprano — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:21:12 +0000

Siel:

You are so freaking on it!

-Matt

By: Jeff at sustainablog

Jeff at sustainablog — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:48:23 +0000

You go, girl… Hard to beat English majors on research…;-)