Banana Business: Good or Bad?

Well, that’s a hard question. To answer let’s look at it from the point of view from the text, Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management. One of the main themes in the novel is the discussion of maximizing shareholder value by increasing financial performance, environmental performance, and social justice performance.

1. Financial Performance: Well, overall the banana business is doing well in the financial aspect of this model. Bananas have been one of Costa Rica’s number one exporters for years. Today, it is still very profitable, which would allow us to assume that banana business is good. However, we must look at the other two objectives in order to come to a conclusion about whether or not the banana business is good or bad?

2. Environmental Performance: There are numerous environmental standards set by the government to help protect the ecosystem from the banana business. One example would be Art. No. 13, which states that waste shall not be burned. Solid waste which is demonstrably unfit for collection or recycling, shall be deposited in sanitary landfills. According to the text, Cradle to Cradle, it is a positive motion that they are banning the burning of waste due to the fact that it could emit powerful chemicals into the environment, which would be harmful to humans, animals, plants, and the ozone. However, they are directly saying that it is ok to deposit their waste into sanitary landfills. That is unacceptable. The waste that they are going to leave in the landfill is not going to decompose and be beneficial to the earth, and therefore the harmful chemicals are just going to stay there. Would you consider this a good business plan, harming our own Earth where there aren’t unlimited resources?

3. Social Justice Performance: The final aspect of the model discusses social justice. As I have stated before, social justice is the concept of fairness and equity in dealing with workers, local communities, and people in other countries. Well, how is the banana business handling this objective? Today, thousands of workers were exposed to harmful chemicals in order to “effectively” produce bananas. I would say that isn’t the best treatment of your employees. Also, the business only offers three month contracts, in order to rotate employees. I don’t believe this is a good business plan because your workers aren’t going to work at their highest potential if they have a fear of losing their job at any moment. Another point that must be made is that the workers often face sexual harassment and violence. Again, they aren’t creating a safe work environment. The final point that I would like to make is that the workers are often paid below the legal minimum wage, which doesn’t push the workers to be the best. Would you consider this a good business plan?

Overall, would you consider Costa Rica’s current banana business, a good one or bad one? From this information, I hope that the banana business takes a new look at where they are heading and what kind of business they want to be.

Information from: http://members.tripod.com/foro_emaus/ni5.html