Klean, Mean, Green, Kanteens

In light of my last post regarding my utter lack of trust or faith in the ability of large companies and corporations to behave in a truly environmentally friendly way, I've chosen this week to respond to the blog topic in a manner I find counter intuitive. I will look specifically at a corporation that is doing good environmental work (so they say). I'm giving them a chance, and trying to broaden my mind - with an enourmous amount of doubt and hesitation. So thanks in part to what I learned this semester about Patagonia, I looked up other companies that are similar to Patagonia and I found a list online. This list of 10 green compaies (with Patagonia at the top) is almost entirely composed of companies that produce items that are connected with an 'outdoorsy/active lifestyle' in some way- the exception being ChicoBag, a company that creates a wide array of reuseable bags, and Super Green, a solvent free liquid cleaner. I suppose that observation isn't too surprising. I certainly wonder if these companies are 'posers' who have simply found a niche market to serve those environmentally conscious consumers out there. Or if in fact the care for the environment expressed by these companies is actually generated internally. But, I'm not here to 'out' anyone. Despite my tendencies I'm going to take a look at what is being done for the environment by a corporation with an eye searching for the good rather than the suspicious.

The corporation I'm going to consider is Klean Kanteen. On a very basic level Klean Kateen offers something positive for the envrironment simply through the creation of its product- a reuseable BPA free waterbottle, thus minimizing (hopefully) the use of plastic water bottles- and stopping/slowing the grown of the trash island(s). In fact Klean Kanteen was around before the media blew up with all of the bad news about BPA (which you would think would have been removed from all plastic bottles by now, but such is this world), and trash island, which signifies a certain inherent care for these issues. They are a member of 1% for the planet and Certified B Corporations. As a member of 1% for the planet they give 1% of their annual sales to nonprofits. 1% for the planet has 1,200 member companies and 3,300 participating non profits. They deal with a variety of issues- Alternative Transportation, Climate Change, Food, Land, Water, and Wildlife. Certified B Corporations are corporations that have been “certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performanc, accountability, and transparency.” There are more than 1,000 Certified B Corporations from 33 countries and over 60 industries. The goal of these corporation is to “redefine success in business.” They are trying to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems (patagonia is a B Corp). Klean Kanteen is a family owned business. They do seem to be quite transparent, they even have an 'Inside Klean' tab on their home page that leads to information on their business practices, history and goals. The top post on their blog is 'Why Protect Our Oceans.' It is heartening to see all of this, and the fact that the participants in the 1% and B Corps projects are in the very low thousands actually adds some validity for me. If they had too many participants I would really find their claims hard to believe. Obviously a majority of the corporations in the world do not have an environmental focus, and do not donate 1% of their annual profits to better the planet. I suppose I would have to label this as a Market Liberal/Bioenvironmental movement. These people are very much working with the capitalist system, they are using the power of corporations to benefit the environment. It is notable that while well known, none of the member organizations are the really big ones- no Wal-Mart, no Proctor and Gamble. Thinking back to Peter Dauvergne's talk (and co authored article), 'Can Wal-Mart Save the World?' I think this is a more practical approach to the question. In my option Wal-Mart can save the world, but Wal-Mart will not save the world, these smaller corporations however, they actually might save the world (not on their own, but as a part of a much broader movement). It seems to me that a lot of people in our program view the business approach as invalid... or maybe it's just me.. but I think this kind of action widens the spectrum of opportunities. There are actually viable business approaches, ways to marry buisness and environmental activism (of sort).

As Americans, as human citizens of this globalized world (is it still globalizing? Should I say 'globalizing world? I suppose it both is globalized and globalizing... but I digress), anyway, as I was saying, we live in this particular culture and while we all care about the environment, we all have different visions of our future paths. Some are called to a life of activism in a variety of forms- NGOs, Non-profits, vagabond protestors climbing trees and off shore oil rigs. Others want to go into a government job, some want to go into the corporate world. We know where the money is, and some people want to fulfill the 'american dream' of making a lot of it. I feel that if you're an environmentalist who wants to go into the corporate world, you need to know your business, know your company, that way you can do good work in good faith. Unless of course you have some kind of Master plan to overthrown/rehaul one of those big ole money loving corporations, in that case more power to you.

Also while I believe in the need for a paradigm shift and for sacrifices to be made by the Western World, I also think that we need to ease into it. You don't generally shock people into changing their view, it happens slowly. This kind of business practice, of viewing businesses as things that are inherently good for the environment, this is a positive shift, if only because it brings environment into the conversation. 

(Please note, all opinions and comments are subject to change, and the author should not be held to them)