I’ve been working on a chapter of The Green Executive covering personal and corporate values. This is probably the trickiest chapter of all as personal values are by definition subjective. As corporate values flow from personal values, the subjectivity flows with them. I’m an engineer by education, so I like things to be objective and it takes me a while to frame subjective issues properly – many industrialists have the same problem.

Here are some ethical questions when it comes to going green:

• To what extent are you responsible for your staff?
• To what extent are you responsible for the well being of people working in your supply chain?
• To what extent are you responsible for the environmental performance of your supply chain?
• To what extent are you responsible for the well being of people using your product?
• To what extent are you responsible for the environmental or social impacts of your product in use?
• To what extent are you responsible for the safe disposal of your product?
• Are stakeholders in your product’s lifecycle treated equally well irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, gender, disability or income?
• Is it OK to make a profit from the impacts of climate change?
• Is it OK to make a profit from tackling climate change?
• Is it OK to make a profit from the poor?
• How ‘green’ or ‘ethical’ does a product or service have to be before you can sell it as such?

Tricky, aren’t they. I can’t give you the answer, either, you’ve got to decide for yourself!