In my 3 previous ‘How can a web design company be green and ethical?’ articles I focused on the business as a consumer. However, of course, the main purpose of a business is to provide either a service or a product. So how can you make sure that as a service provider you’re working in an ethical way?

PART 4 – LIVE YOUR POLICY

Whatever business policies you have they should be so much more than a statement. They should be a guide and point of reference for the way you do business every day.

Here at Make Hay we have an environmental policy, a working document which helps us to make sure we keep up our green practices as well as make new plans for the future.

It is our ethical policy however that is the backbone of our business, it encapsulates the reason we set up Make Hay and demonstrates to our clients that we won’t make money from unethical sources. To give you an idea, these sources include those who harvest natural resources, test cosmetic / household products on animals, chemical manufacturers and so on.

Think about the way you live your daily life and you can apply this to your business. Just as you wouldn’t want to give your money to an unethical company you probably wouldn’t want to earn money from them either.

We set up Make Hay because we wanted to support ethical businesses and organisations to raise their profile via the web. Conversely we wouldn’t want to promote businesses or organisations which are involved in environmentally or socially negative practices. Therefore our ethical policy states the kinds of activities and businesses we will and will not support via our services.

We’re also very interested in spreading ethical business as a whole and encouraging businesses to change their ways. Our policy isn’t meant to be judgmental and excluding but aims to be thought provoking and motivating. We believe that encouraging clients and colleagues to consider this means of ‘service activism’ and get them thinking about what their money may be supporting is very important.

In the early days of setting up Make Hay people thought we were being silly cutting out areas of a market with our ethical policy. But we decided that if we didn’t do that it wouldn’t be the business that we wanted to run. Indeed we have turned away very lucractive jobs because because those clients would have contravened our ethical policy but we haven’t regretted it for one second.

Understandably its difficult to say ‘no’ to clients when you need to pay the bills but just think, if many more businesses decided that they wouldn’t take money from unethical customers what a big difference we could all make together.

Next instalment: Part 5 – Make Ethical Friends

Vicky – www.makehay.co.uk