Is Apple green enough?

According to a GreenPeace report Apple is not environmentally friendly enough. Many of their products seem to contain hazardous substances, such as PVC, that most companies have already abandoned. It also performs poorly on product take back and recycling. In fact, the report states that, when the environmental impact is taken into account, Apple ranks at the bottom of the list. Even though the report was only based on information that is publicly available, these facts surely are relevant.

Apple says, as a reaction to the growing criticism over its environmental record of late, that "it recognizes its responsibility as a global citizen and is continually striving to reduce its environmental impact". Let's hope that Apple really means what it says here and that it will take suffeciënt measures to reduce its impact on the environment.

Oliver Vander Cruysse

Join sweating in the sneaker sweatshop

You want to know in what conditions your sneekers are made? Play Sim Sweatshop.


Sim Sweatshop is an educative game that informs you about working conditions in the sneeker industry.

To save on production costs, large 'respected' clothing companies outsource the manufacturing of their products to low-wage countries in so called sweatshops. In those factories, who are spread all over the world, people have to work in bad working conditions, don't have any syndical representation, are forced to make long workweeks and are underpaid.

Sim sweatshop tries to let people understand how much sweat and tears has preceded when nice sneekers are sold in our stores.


Jord Willo

Service bundling

Big telecom and cable companies claim that buying a package of their services, including for example a phone line, internet and television service, is the way of the future. The companies offer discounts on these service 'bundles' for new subscribers and the convenience of being able to cancel services you don't want after the free introductory period.

The problem is that in many cases these promises seem to be untrue. Customers suddenly get a very high bill they didn't expect and afterwards it's very hard to cancel a service they don't want anymore.

Now the big question is if service bundles are really making live easier and cheaper for the consumers or is it just a new way for these companies to make their profits even bigger and try to monopolise the market?

Oliver Vander Cruysse

The corporate social responsibility(CSR) of Kellogg's

The Kellogg company clearly understands the importance of business ethics for preserving the grace of the community, their employees and, of course, the consumers.

The company has a wide range of CSR practises such as community investment, ethics and compliance and the environment. In 2005 it even got the Donor of the Year Award for its frequent donations to food banks. Kellogg's also invests in the futures of minorities and women through scholarschips and financial contributions.

To realize all of this the company has several programs, such as Kellogg's Care$ and the Kellogg Corporate Citizenship Fund. The growing importance of ethics clearly didn't go unnoticed by this leading nutrition company.












Oliver Vander Cruysse

Ethical investing and weapons

Government Pension Fund-Global (GPFG), the largest of Norway's sovereign wealth funds, blacklisted Textron.

Textron produces cluster weapons, wich are banned due to the Convention of Cluster Munitions. The convention was signed Dec. 3 by more than 100 countries (including Norway), but not the United States, China or Russia.

Kristin Halvorsen, Norway's finance minister, said that the announcement to divest 36 million USD in Textron shares by the GPFG's adminstrative board, was based on a report and an exclusion recommendation from the fund's Ethics Council.

"We cannot participate in the funding of this type of production." Halvorsen said. The Norway government simply cannot afford to soil her image by investing in clusterweapons and to not comply The Convention of Cluster Munitions they've signed.

Jord Willo

Controlling CEO Pay won't be easy

Since the start of the crisis the CEO wage has always been a subject of discussion.
President Obama’s suggested a $500,000 cap for the salaries of executives at companies receiving government support, this is a good start, but there is still a lot of work to really control these outrageous wages.

“You Try to Live on 500k in This Town” was the daring headline of The New York Times Style section after Obama proclaimed The 500k ceiling. For average working people 500.000 USD might seem a lot of money, but for CEO's who have an average of 2 to 3 million USD a year, this 500k proposal can be a disaster.

To justify this proposal there has to be a drastic change is the corporate culture of today. A generation ago, the average CEO of a big company earned 15 to 20 times the salary of the average worker; in recent years, this salary has grown to 300 to 400 times the average worker’s compensation.

These remunerations are a part of our business culture, and it'll take a long time to change this mentality.

Jord Willo

What are the social responsibilities of business?

Social responsibility has become a crucial part of business. The society requires of the (big) companies that they make contributions to charities, treat everyone they do business with well… In general, companies need to make socially responsible decisions all while earning profit.

This is more difficult than you should think. Everyone has a different opinion on what’s ethical and what’s not. So it’s impossible for a company to make a decision that will please everybody.

Furthermore are there many different values among society that it’s possible that a company has different ‘social responsibility- policies’, depending on the country the company is established.

Sander Piens

Card game teaches ethics

The department Integrity Consulting of KPMG has developed a game just for companies, called ‘Open Card’. The goal of the game is to test the morale of the employees. They need to learn how to balance making profits and acquiring a positive company-image.

This game is a part of a large integrity project that Intres, a cooperation of 1600 entrepreneurs, started this spring. Their director claims that ethical management is very important nowadays.

‘A modern business can’t survive just by focussing on profit maximization. It’s important that you also satisfy your employees, your suppliers… and not just your shareholders, he sais.

Sander Piens

Profit and corporate social responsibility

The main goal of a company is to make money. It’s very important that a business remains profitable, not only for the economy but also for its employees, customers,… We all know that a company has a responsibility to their stakeholders to grow and profit, but at the other hand, it also has a certain social responsibility towards the community.

There are some ways companies can achieve profits combined with corporate social responsibility , such as

-Act ethically: be honest when it comes to financial reporting and use faire marketing practices.

-Try to reduce your damage on the environment.

-Take part in outsourcing, but that doesn’t contain child labour, sweat shops,…

Sander Piens