There has been a marked rise in conscious business and now that needs support from conscious consumerism. It is wonderful that many more business are becoming socially responsible but there needs to be some acknowledgment of this from the wider corporate sector so that this can develop into something sustainable in the economy. There are 1,000 businesses around the world that are now classified as B Corporations that really promote sustainable, socially equitable and ethical behavior. They are very promising, but this trend cannot continue without the wider business community’s support. Right now the rest of the business community is stuck with conventional business models, which are not recognizing the huge, looming environment and social problems that await.
The things that these social enterprises or the B Corporations are helping on a micro scale, but cannot really be effective without support throughout the entire business community. Large scale change is the only thing that will address the crises that we are facing as a global community. However, it may not be the fault of those businesses that have not jumped on the B Corporations bandwagon yet. Really, business simply responds to consumer demands, so the real issues is getting consumers to be environmentally and socially conscious and demanding those products and services. It turns out that the Stanford Social Innovation review found that “consumers want to act green, but they expect businesses to lead the way.” So essentially, we have hit a chicken or egg situation. Who is going to act first? Business is waiting for consumer demand and consumers are waiting for business.
There are advantages for business like reducing pollution, waste and energy in order to be green. However, this requires some initial investment and it seems that many are not willing to take that leap. So really, this change overall must come from both the business and the consumer sectors. Someone must educate both consumers and enlighten the business community at the same time. There is mounting evidence that we need to change and a growing global consciousness of our human impact on the earth. Hopefully both consumers and businesses will realize that they need to change their ways before it is too late.
