Corporate America is frequently blamed for the ailments of the economy, the environment and civil society in general. However, day after day, it becomes more and more apparent that large corporations may actually be working wonders for progressive, science-based research and operational policies. I'm fairly sure that their agendas don't include stealing the souls of communities, crowding out small farmers, or toppling the integrity of global ecosystems under the guise of social responsibility, as some seem to believe.
I respectfully disagree with the view of mega-corporations as inherently evil, although I'll agree that some are. I'd like to propose that large corporations are, in fact, shaping up to be integral players in models of sustainable business operations. Their initiatives may, in fact, facilitate similar transitions for suppliers and small businesses with only a fraction of their financial capabilities.
One of the main obstacles with introducing new, "greener" technologies, whether it is in supply chain, packaging, HVAC, or transportation operations, are the barriers of high start-up costs. If undertaken solely by smaller enterprises, zero-waste initiatives and life-cycle analyses, energy auditing and retrofitting, and incorporating biofuels into transportation fleets are, at this point, financially impractical.
However, each of the steps taken by corporate giants has the potential to make a major industry impact, encouraging an expansion in the provision of these products and services, ultimately leading to a price reduction. How many small business enterprises, realistically, could have afforded to expend the time and resources that Starbucks did in researching and obtaining FDA approval for the use of post-consumer recycled cups in their stores? How many companies can channel the kind of funds needed to research, build, and operate the cogeneration turbines that power SC Johnson's largest production facility, stimulating alternative energy industry growth and accumulating a massive energy and emissions savings? Of course, it's also true that massive companies have the potential to do a lot of economic, social and environmental harm, and they should under no conditions ever be given operational carte blanche in areas such as legal compliance and workplace standards.
Still, this is more of what consumers and media tend to focus on, often overlooking the fact that anytime these monster-size enterprises, for whatever reason, initiate practices that demonstrate corporate social responsibility they can do wonders for the rest of the world. Although, I'm sure a certain Nick Machiavelli is rolling over in his grave because I'm applying this concept to corporate America. Even if these policies and changes made by the world's massive market players are strictly driven by a selfish, commercial desire for mainstream popularity and image therapy, why should the intrinsic benefits of the results they produce be valued any less than the efforts of others?
Whether mega-corporations are viewed as leaders in expanding markets in new, green technologies, or simply as commercial "sugar daddies" that are nothing more than a necessary evil to be endured in the process of this sector's growth, the results are the same, and no less constructive. Yes, it's true that beginning to discuss the impersonality and general creepiness of monstrous corporations could fill volumes, but I'll leave that can of worms for another day, and for now respectfully hope for positive, culturally, socially, and environmentally sustainable, science-based solutions from the world's enigmatic, over-sized, often contradictory, but perhaps not entirely unworthy corporations.