True cost.

That is a concept that every company should consider, but few ever really do. What is the true cost of a cotton shirt in water and land usage, fossil fuels and energy? How about air pollution and health of the people working with the pesticides? How about trying to calculate the true cost of most of the products we consume on a daily basis?

I recently came across this article from Fortune. They evaluate companies based on certain criteria to generate an “accountability score” that will decide where that company ranks among the others. So my question is, how do you account for true cost in a ranking system such as the one described below. Each field seems to be an aspect of true cost, but is it creating more awareness within the companies, or just allowing for a quick and easy PR move?

Transparency, green initiatives, open listening to consumers… these are just a few of the criteria used by AccountAbility to create the list of the most accountable fortune 500 companies (using a series of proprietary questions). Europeans dominated this year’s top ten, but GE represented the US at the number two spot. Take a gander at the top 100 list, and see what you think about the nature of the companies listed there.

“GE, which catapults from No. 13 in 2007, consistently provides updates on the progress of ambitious goals such as improving healthcare policy and establishing career training in developing countries. But the company’s crown jewel is its Ecomagination initiative, a program that aims to expand GE’s portfolio of environmentally friendly products and technologies. CEO Jeff Immelt recently announced that the initiative will produce revenues of $17 billion in 2008 - a 21% increase from the year before - from selling products such as ultra-efficient locomotives and advanced membranes that filter water.”

What is our job as consumers? How do we vote with our dollars? My feeling is, I want to be as informed as possible about what I’m buying from who. Ultimately, I want to know who made the product and how. This may seem difficult or utterly impossible, but we can start small and get practice, slowly replacing our reactionary consumer habits with decisions based on facts that are important to us.

How about starting with our local businesses?

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