When pondering the question, of how do we make things better, and how do we build the world we want, it’s important to understand we aren’t starting from scratch. To rely on corpspeak, “we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”
To make progress, we don’t need abstract ideas. We need tangible, realistic areas we can start to bring this idea to fruition. What makes sense is to build on what we already have. There’s been a ton of awesome work done by incredible people who care deeply about what they do.
Some of us have been trying to make progress all along so we might as well take advantage of what already exists.
Less Bad hopes to bring as many passionate people and organizations together to make progress on so many important problems.
There’s a lot of work to be done in the world, but fortunately, there are plenty of existing resources out there to help us get us going. We can build on what we have today, using current groups and data as a strong foundation.
Existing Organizations
There are hundreds of great organizations with dedicated employees and engaged donors that are working hard to build a better future. I’m still working on organizing them, but they exist. Eventually, each of the Goals and Strategies covered in this site will have a section with organizations involved in making progress. If you work for one or have a favorite, please let me know and I can add it right away.
For now, I’ve collected some of my favorites and have tried to collect them into related groups. For instance, you’ll find organizations related to the environment or social responsibility, or corporate responsibility.
But let’s start with what I think is one of the most important.
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is one of the best resources available for donors looking to make effective donations. They’ve rated hundreds of charities to find the ones that are making the biggest impact. In these cynical times, one of the issues with supporting charities and non-profits is that you can never be sure that your donations are going to make a difference. Stories of non-profit leaders abusing their position, using funds to pay themselves or other kinds of waste come up every once in a while. There are several rating criteria, but one of the ways Charity Navigator grades charities is in terms of how much impact they deliver. Other criteria include financial transparency and accountability, as well as their effectiveness in terms of program results.
While its focus is on donations to charities, you can use it to find organizations that are aligned with what’s important to you to get involved. Many charities provide guides and information that can help you be better informed and get involved with the causes important to you.
Working Toward Impact Consumerism
As the idea of using consumer choice to encourage businesses to be more responsible (what I’m calling Impact Consumerism) grows, we as consumers will have a trustworthy and transparent tool to help us make more informed shopping decisions. A fully-functional responsible shopping solution is still a ways off, but in the meantime, there are a lot of sources of data that can help us start to fill in the blanks.
Corporations aren’t going to change overnight, but as more and more consumers demand that companies act responsibly (#demandMoreforYourDollar), more and more sources of information on responsible shopping will become available. Ranking companies in a standardized way that is accessible to consumers will become more and more important.
The hope is that as momentum for Impact Consumerism builds, individuals, charitable and non-profit organizations, corporations and government will collaborate to create reasonable reporting standards for consumers to rely on, The Humanity Index.
Once we understand and appreciate existing endeavors, we can identify current limitations, as well as how to accelerate the move toward a more civic-minded business culture.
Until then, you can browse to see the various existing data regarding the social impact of different corporations.
Consumer Reports
You’ve probably heard of Consumer Reports, the nonprofit organization that helps consumers make informed decisions about the products they buy. They do this by providing impartial ratings of products and services, as well as in-depth reports. One of Consumer Reports’ primary goals is to protect consumers from deceptive business practices. They also work to promote competition in the marketplace and to advocate for laws and regulations that protect consumers’ rights.
“Ethical” Consumer Organizations
The idea of “ethical consumerism” has been around for a while now, the idea being to use your purchasing power to support businesses that have a positive social and environmental impact, and avoid those that don’t. There are several different ways to evaluate companies, but most “ethical” consumer organizations look at a company’s record on things like labor rights, environmental impact, animal welfare, and corporate responsibility. I like “Impact Consumerism” a little better, I think “ethics” is a bit too subjective and… judgy?
Either way, shopping ethically has been around for a while and there are a few organizations that stand out in the field.
Some of the better-known ethical consumer organizations include:
The Green Stars Project
Providing “User-generated ratings for ethical consumerism” the Green Stars Project offers a rating system for social and environmental impact. Its described as “a grassroots activism movement to address corporate misbehavior, recognize ethical businesses, and tackle social and environmental problems through individual action.”
Better World Shopper
Describing itself as a “public research project for ethical consumers,” Better World Shopper is dedicated to making social and environmental data accessible to customers who want to use their money as a vote to help create a better world.
Ethical Consumer
With information on more than 40,000 brands and products, Ethical Consumer aims to provide everything you need to change the way you “spend, save, and live.”
Ethical Consumer Group / Shop Ethical
Based in Australia, the non-profit Ethical Consumer Group and its Shop Ethical project aim to “facilitate more sustainable purchasing practices for the everyday consumer. ” They maintain a comprehensive guide on many consumer products, although they are products sold in Australia. But there is a lot of overlap since the same handful of conglomerates dominates around the world.
Corporate Responsibility / Impact Investing / ESG
Call it what you want, but in the world of finance, the past decade has seen an explosion of interest in “socially responsible” businesses, recently derided as “woke capitalism” by many on the right.
In the world of “responsible investing,” the concept of corporate responsibility, in general, is referred to as impact investing or ESG investing (Environment, Social, and Governance).
Impact Investing Has Its Problems
I have my issues with existing impact investing reporting, particularly because they go too easy on (ignore) one of the most important issues we’re facing, the influence of money on the government. But I get they need to start somewhere and avoid making powerful enemies.
Many in the finance world wonder how much good many of these “responsible investment funds” are doing. The issue of “greenwashing” is a real area of concern. Greenwashing is what they call it when companies pay lip service to care about the environment while continuing to damage it.
Nonetheless, ESG reporting metrics and score card provide a useful starting point for the Impact Consumerism movement.
As a sign of optimism, the growth of these kinds of “responsible” investment vehicles is a testament to the appetite that exists from people who want to help. As The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance notes,
“The massive flow of assets into ESG-focused funds reflects the intense and growing demand for investment products that enable investors to put their values into action while pursuing strong financial returns in their portfolios.”
If there’s one thing the finance industry has is resources. And if investors want information on “ethical” companies, you can bet the firms hoping to sell them investment vehicles will cater to them.
The not unreasonable hope is that the information consumers and investors want to overlap. If enough consumers are demanding transparency into corporate behavior so that they can make purchasing decisions, well that is when ESG investing will take off.
Again I have a lot of problems with the current ESG reporting and the corporations that provide data, but Less Bad isn’t about perfection, it’s about working with what we have.
Existing Sources of Corporate Impact Information
There are multiple organizations and movements toward “grading” companies by different criteria.
While many firms are rushing to fill the need for ESG data, the two biggest data brokers on impact investing data seem to be Refinitiv and Truvalue Labs, which most of the firms touting responsible investing get their data from. You can find some impact investing data on their sites, but their audience is bigger financial brokerages, not average customers (normal people can’t pay their bills so they ignore average customers – hopefully, that will change).
But a few organizations are leading the way to make impact investing more accessible to people who aren’t in the finance industry.
- Just Capital – According to their website, “JUST Capital measures and ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most so you can then act on that knowledge.” Its target audience is investors, but as an average consumer, you can browse their information to get a better understanding of how the biggest companies stack up against each other. Just Capital ranks companies in terms of six issues: how they treat workers, their impact on communities, shareholder and governance issues, how they treat their customers, environmental impact, and employee pay. It’s worth taking a look at their JUST Rankings to see what they are up to.
- Corporate Knights – Describing itself as “The Voice of Clean Capitalism, Corporate Knights published a monthly magazine and website whose research division “produces corporate rankings, research reports and financial product ratings based on corporate sustainability performance.” Check out their reports on various clean capitalism issues.
- IMPACT App – Created by brokerage firm Interactive Brokers, the IMPACT app claims it’s the “simplest way to invest in companies that are aligned with the values you care most about.” While it’s meant for investors, you can use it to screen companies for shopping purposes as well. When you create your account you’ll be asked to select from more than a dozen criteria important to you including environmental and corporate governance issues. You can also flag for lobbying, ethics, and other issues.
Environmental Impact Organizations
The Responsible Investing / ESG world aims to take a holistic look at the entire impact of a business. But for many of us, the most important issue when trying to make responsible choices at the cash register is the environment.
In recent years, improvements in corporate environmental impact accountability have been one area that has seen some encouraging signs. More and more companies are touting their green credentials (granted, how much of that is marketing vs reality is often questionable).
But there are countless organizations hard at work attempting to evaluate corporate impact in different areas – we have enough to get started.
Below is a look at some of the organizations evaluating the corporate impact on the environment.
- The Carbon Disclosure Project – The CDP is an international, not-for-profit organization that provides “the only global system for companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share vital environmental information.” They aim to assess and mitigate environmental impact, with a focus on corporate carbon emissions.
- EcoVadis – EcoVadis describes itself as “the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings.” They maintain a global network of more than 90,000 companies. They don’t have much that is aimed at average consumers, but they are doing important work and have some interesting corporate impact reports that are worth exploring.
- Verra – Verra’s standards and programs “provide innovative solutions to environmental and social problems, and work for people and the planet by supporting projects and activities that deliver a range of benefits to communities and their surrounding environment.”
- World Wildlife Fund – The World Wildlife Fund works to ” conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth” with programs like Climate Savers.
- The Nature Conservancy – The Nature Conservancy works to “conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.” Their Land and Water Conservation fund is one program aimed at conservation.
- The Environmental Protection Agency – An agency of the US Federal Government, the EPA works to protect human health and the environment through programs like the Green Power Partnership and ENERGY STAR.
- The Rainforest Action Network – The Rainforest Action Network “works to protect the world’s rainforests and address the climate crisis” through programs like the Forest Defenders program.
- Greenpeace – Greenpeace works to “protect the environment and promote peace.” One of their most important is the Save the Arctic program, which is focused on the melting of the polar ice caps.
- Sustainable Fashion – good on you – Their Twitter bio reads “How do you know if “sustainable fashion” is really, well, sustainable? Good On You is the only way to quickly check brands’ records on people, planet, and animals.” They are a great way to evaluate your clothing purchasing.
Measuring How Companies Treat Employees
The impact of the corporate world on the environment is certainly important, but without people with the capacity to affect change, it can only do so much. The programs below are related to employee relations, with a focus on equitable pay.
The aforementioned JUST Capital maintains ratings on how companies treat their workers rating companies on issues including “paying a fair and a livable wage, investing in workforce training, protecting worker safety, cultivating a diverse workplace, and providing benefits and work-life balance.”
Organizations Tracking Employee Treatment
In Addition to JUST Capital, there are other organizations dedicated to understanding and reporting on how companies treat their employees. Worker pay, gender, racial hiring, and leadership statistics are the most common ways these organizations track how employers treat employees.
Company wage tracker – Economic Policy Institute – If you care about how much employees pay their workers you need to check out the Company Wage Tracker developed by The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in collaboration with the Shift Project. It “looks at 66 large retail and food service firms, showing how many workers they employ, how much revenue they generate in U.S. operations, what they pay their CEOs, and what shares of their U.S. hourly workers fall within certain wage bands (from earning less than $10 per hour to earning at least $20 per hour).” It is a cool tool to quickly see and compare how some of the biggest brands pay employees.
The Company Wage Tracker from the Economic Policy Institute is an awesome tool to compare how companies pay their employees.
It might be the most useful tool out there to evaluate how companies pay their employees and compare companies against each other.
Good Jobs Institute – The Good Jobs Institute works with companies on worker treatment issues. The nonprofit works with business leaders who want to “improve the jobs and lives of their employees in a way that improves performance and competitiveness of their companies.” One of the things they do is maintain a good job scorecard that helps companies evaluate current worker treatment and set goals to improve.
Glassdoor Business Ratings – Although primarily aimed at people who want to evaluate potential employers, Glassdoor rates companies based on how they treat their employees. Ratings are based on reviews by current and past employees and can give you a sense of how companies treat their workers. Until we have a better way of systematically rating employees (the idea behind The Humanity Index) Glassdoor provides a useful tool to help consumers evaluate companies.
CEO Pay Ratio
Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 (which was crafted during the heyday of the Occupy Wall Street movement) included a provision that went into effect in 2018 mandating large companies disclose what their CEOs brought home relative to the average employee as a ratio.
According to the AFL-CIO, the “average S&P 500 company’s CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 324-to-1 in 2021,” meaning that the average CEO makes 324 more money annually than their average employee.
There are several issues with the disclosure, for example, it’s just the take-home pay and doesn’t include compensation in stock (Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, has a salary of zero). The CEO Pay Ratios disclosure has been described as superficial “disclosure by soundbite” by a group of economists. In part, because the media is controlled by the people who want to hide this data, there isn’t a lot of attention paid to it and there are not many useful ways to study it.
But there are a few organizations that are attempting to present that data in a way that’s usable to consumers:
- The AFL-CIO also maintains interactive pages on the Highest-Paid CEOs and Company Pay Ratios, but it’s not great and is more usable for journalists looking to generate clickbait articles.
The AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch tool lets you see how CEOs are paid compared to their workforce. The higher the ratio, the more the CEO makes compared to the average employee. In 2021 Amazon had the highest pay ratio.
- Bloomberg maintains an interactive chart of the CEO pay ratio but you have to subscribe to see it (you might get a few free views a month).
It’s not based only on the CEO pay ratio disclosure, but Just Capital ranks companies by how much they pay their employees. But again it’s not that useful because it tends to be dominated by tech companies that have computer programmers, who can demand higher salaries without the help of consumers, as the bulk of their workforce. When comparing how a company like Apple pays its employees, it’s not that useful to know how it compares to a company like Walmart. But it is useful for comparing a company against its peers in terms of responsible worker pay practices.
As more and more consumers demand more information on what the top earners of a company make compared to the rest of the company, particularly those making the least, more organizations will start compiling the data in more usable ways. And hopefully, there will be more pressure on companies to be more transparent about their pay practices.
With any luck, at some point, a person with a full-time job will earn a living wage.
Corporate Political Donation Data
Many people are concerned about the influence of money on the government. In theory, we could vote with our wallets by supporting or avoiding companies based on who they give donations to. Of course the real problem is that smart companies have no choice but to donate to both sides.
But if there was at least more transparency and accountability on behalf of businesses, consumers could have a little more information when making purchasing decisions.
While a lot of information about lobbying and corporate influence on government is out of view, there is some useful information about corporate campaign contributions if you are willing to do a little homework.
OpenSecrets.org is one of the most comprehensive sources of campaign fundraising and spending information. You can look at contributions by candidate, sector, or political leanings. It’s great information on lobbying and campaign finance.
The Campaign Legal Center is another outstanding organization working to shed light on the influence of money in government. They focus on using the legal system to advance democracy to protect “every American’s right to participate in the democratic process.”
If the influence of money in Washington is important to you, I urge you to support both of these organizations devoted to transparency into corporate influence on the political system.
Consumer Product Certification Programs
Certification programs are an attempt to ensure products are made in an ethical and environmentally friendly way. They have been around for a while now and, while they have their issues, they provide an easy and useful way for consumers to quickly judge a product before they buy it. Next time you’re at the grocery store, keep an eye out for certifications like the ones below.
Fairtrade Certification
The Fairtrade Certification is focused on ensuring that the workers who produce the goods we consume are treated fairly. This includes ensuring they are paid a livable wage, have access to fair working conditions, and that their communities benefit from the trade. Fairtrade is one of the most well-known certification programs in the world.
Organic Certification
Organic certification is focused on ensuring that the products are made without the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. This means that the workers who produce these goods are not exposed to harmful chemicals and the environment is protected. This doesn’t necessarily mean the products are the best for the environment, but it is useful.
Rainforest Alliance Certification
The Rainforest Alliance certification is focused on ensuring that products come from farms that follow sustainable practices. Deforestation and the Amazon jungle are one of the most pressing issues we’re facing as we try to limit the negative impacts of businesses on the environment.
Marine Stewardship Council
The ocean is in big trouble. There are fewer and fewer fish, coral reefs are on their way out, and there’s a plastic island of garbage floating around the Pacific Ocean, and dead zones all over. One of the organizations attempting to mitigate the effects of corporations on the oceans is the Marine Stewardship Council, which focuses on sustainable seafood. This means that the fish come from well-managed sources, that there is minimal impact on the environment, and that the workers involved in fishing are treated fairly.
Forest Stewardship Council Certification
The Forest Stewardship Council Certification ensures that the products you are buying come from responsibly managed forests. This means that the forests are being managed in a way that does not negatively impact the environment, workers, or communities. FSC certification is also one of the ways to ensure that the products you are buying are made from sustainable materials.
Organizations Measuring Social Equality
There are a few organizations that attempt to rate companies in terms of their social impact. This includes gender and racial equality as well as LGBTQIA+ rights. If social issues are important to you, supporting the companies dedicated to making progress in this area is a way to use your consumer power for good.
Equality Now
Equality Now is an organization that rates companies on their policies and practices regarding gender equality. They have a list of companies that they have rated as well as a list of companies that they are currently working with to improve their policies and practices.
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign maintains the Corporate Equality Index, which they describe as “the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees.”
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The EEOC is a government organization that works to “stop and remedy unlawful discrimination in the workplace.” They provide resources for both employees and employers, investigate claims of discrimination, and work to change policies and practices that are discriminatory.
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is “the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization.” They work to ensure equality for all people, regardless of race. They can be a solid source of information on corporate social issues.
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union is “one of the nation’s premier defenders of individual liberties.” They work to defend the rights of all people, including those who are LGBTQIA+, immigrants, people of color, and more. They provide reports and will often publish articles on social issues as they relate to corporations.
Avoiding Conglomerates, Multi-Nationals, and Monopolies
If you don’t have the time to wade through so many disparate sources of data on the corporate impact on the world, then a simple rule of thumb is just to avoid these massive multi-national conglomerates whenever possible.
The majority of the goods we see in the stores, particularly consumer goods like food and health care items, come from a handful of conglomerates. For example, did you know that Ben and Jerry’s and Annies (most famous for their “good” mac and cheese), are owned by Unilever and General Mills respectively?
Sometimes the corporate owner of the products we see in supermarkets isn’t on the packaging, but with a little homework, you can pretty easily discover who owns a brand. It’s one of the many reasons we need to demand corporate transparency.
While we wait for The Humanity Index to come on board, we can use the broad rule of thumb of avoiding multi-national corporations to help keep our dollars away from these mega-corporations.
So far we’ve been dealing with organizations that are working to push societal goals. But there are other elements already in place that can help us make progress.
Remember this article is about using the tools we have now to build a better world.
Enforcing the Laws We Already Have
As is often said about immigration, “let’s enforce the laws on the books.” There are several laws already in place that help society but are not being enforced for different reasons. This is particularly the case in the finance world and the arena of political contributions.
Contact your lawmaker and push them to make enforcing these laws a priority. Too often entrenched power skirt or break the rules without consequences because of a lack of resources or political will. And when they do get caught individuals aren’t held responsible, and the corporation pays a slap-on-the-wrist fine without admitting wrongdoing, which they see as the cost of doing business.
Let’s get government enforcement agencies to do their jobs.
Organizations Prosecuting White Collar Crime
One of the biggest problems we face in mitigating the negative corporate impact on the world is white-collar crime. This type of crime, which includes offenses like fraud and embezzlement, is often not prosecuted. This is because it’s difficult to prove, and the people who commit these crimes are often in positions of power.
But several organizations are working to combat white-collar crime:
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) is a professional association dedicated to the prevention and detection of fraud. The ACFE offers training and certification programs, as well as resources for combating fraud. If white-collar crime and corporate misbehavior are important to you, they are a good resource to get informed.
National White Collar Crime Center
The National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) is a nonprofit organization “dedicated to the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of high-tech, economic, and white-collar crime.” The NW3C offers training and resources for combating white-collar crime. They also offer several different programs, including the National Cyber-Forensics & Training Alliance, which is a partnership between the private sector, law enforcement, and academia.
If you’re interested in getting involved in the fight against white-collar crime, these are two organizations worth checking out. We need to get tough on white-collar crime if we’re going to make any progress in the arena of holding corporations accountable for their actions.
You can support these organizations by donating or becoming a member.
Toward Impact Consumerism and The Humanity Index
On the roadmap for Less Bad is to create a standardized report card we’re calling The Humanity Index that we can use to grade companies and fully evaluate the impact of a business. With a better understanding of corporate behavior, Impact Consumerism can start changing corporate behavior.
The hope is to eventually aggregate data from sources like those above and allow consumers at a glance to quickly and easily see a company’s global impact.
Individual consumers will be able to drill down into specific areas that are important to them. Depending on individual beliefs, consumers can base purchases on areas of concern like environmental impact, political donations, community involvement, employee pay, etc. When making choices at the cash register, The humanity Index allows conscious consumers to compare brands competing for those spending dollars.
These Existing Organizations Can Help Us Make the World Better
Makin the world Less Bad is a tall order. But as the organizations showcased in this article prove, there is a lot of information already out there, if you know where to look. We have some rocks that, while not really amounting to a foundation, can serve as building blocks upon which we can build a better world for everyone.
We’re in the process of figuring out the best way to tie all this information together and make it more usable for consumers like you. We’d like to get to a place where you can find out how brands affect the specific issues you care about so you can tailor your shopping experiences according to your specific values.
If you’d like to lend a hand, please sign up for the newsletter below.
Look around the site
It won’t take you long to see that the site is a work in progress. I’m working hard on building it out, but check out the goals and strategies and look for the issues that are important to you because some of those pages have related organizations. Eventually, I will break them out into their pages but at the moment I’m working to build out the initial structure of the goals and strategies first.
Please keep in mind that this site is a labor of love and will take some time to reach its final form. In the meantime, I hope you find it useful, and please feel free to contact me with any suggestions or questions.
Wow, can’t believe you made it all the way down, thanks for your interest!
