Being ethical is not as easy as it sounds. To follow moral and ethical principles may not be in line or in favor of a company’s stakeholders.   The needs of the global community may not align with the goals of a for-profit organization.   A great example that shows that the world is not ready for switching entirely to being ethical is what had happened to Chiquita Brands, an American firm which is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of bananas and other fruits.

Chiquita chose not to use  fuel from Canadian tar sands in their ships and trucks.  They said that the extraction of the oil is made with no respect to the environment. This action resulted in Chiquita being  boycotted by the Ethical Oil organization. Chiquita was the only company that took this step, even though they had acted unethically by paying protection money to Colombian paramilitary forces surrounding its plantations –  they have now admitted to this infraction.  Once again the company’s decision had negative consequences. The company had to face American and Colombian lawsuits.

I believe that in order to be able to progress more companies should act as Chiquita – they paid a price for ethical business and proved that being ethical is not easy and in many cases can be an expensive process but in the end its worth doing.

Sources:

http://www.economist.com/node/21551500 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/grants-for-starting-a-green-business.html

http://www.chiquita.com/The-Chiquita-Difference/Ethics-Codes-of-Conduct.aspx

photo source:

 http://business.financialpost.com/2011/12/16/oil-sands-embroiled-in-banana-wars/