Ethical consciousness

The development of ethical consciousness is the responsibility of the entrepreneur because his or her vision created the venture. An entrepreneur practices good ethical standards require to engage their business venture in ethical behaviour. The entrepreneur also needs to ensure his or her ethical principles are wholly enforced throughout the business. 

The entrepreneur that practice ethical consciousness is John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods Market that advocates in the movement for organic food. Mackey co-founded his first health food store, SaferWay with his girlfriend in Austin in 1978. After couple of years, Mackey built Whole Food into an international organization, with outlet in major markets across the country, as well as Canada and United Kingdom. 

In April 2007, Whole Foods Market launched the Whole Trade Guarantee, a purchasing initiative emphasizing ethics and social responsibility concerning products imported from the developing world. The criteria include fair prices for crops, environmentally sound practices, better wages and labor conditions for workers and premium product quality. One percent of proceeds from Whole Trade certified products will go to the Whole Planet Foundation to support micro-loan programs in developing countries. The company’s goal published in 2007 is to have at least half of its imported products from these countries fully certified by 2017.

Whole Foods was placed third on the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the ‘‘Top 25 Green Power Partners’’. The company also received the EPA Green Power Award in 2004 and 2005 and Partner of the Year award in 2006 and 2007. The company plans on purchasing 458 gigawatt hours of wind energy credits. This will keep about 700 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions out of the atmosphere. This is equivalent to taking 60,000 cars off the road or planting 90,000 acres of trees.

(John Mackey and the logo of Whole Foods Market.)