Robert B Fishman
The East Westphalian district of Höxter wants to become Germany's first region for the common good. The city of Steinheim has already drawn up a public welfare balance, as have numerous businesses in the region. The small town of Willebadessen wants to present its sustainability balance in September. The small town supplies itself completely from renewable energies and is converting its school into a family center.
Climate catastrophe, extinction of species, destruction of nature - ours Economic system overwhelmed the planet. World exhaustion day, on which mankind has used up more resources than the earth can “replenish” in the same year, is advancing further and further. In 2019 it was July 29th, May 3rd in Germany. If we all lived like we we would, humanity would need three and a half planets. Problem: We only have one.
The neither green nor politically left-wing World Economic Forum WEF in Davos recognizes the environmental degradation 2020 for the first time as the greatest threat to the global economy. In its current risk report, the WEF names extreme weather, species extinction, a possible failure of climate policy and the foreseeable collapse of ecosystems as the greatest threats to the economy. The WEF puts the value of goods and services that the world produces on the basis of healthy ecosystems at 33 trillion US dollars annually. That corresponds to the economic performance of the USA and China combined.
Money and profit maximization have become ends in themselves
Not only our livelihoods suffer from the conditions: burn-out, poverty, starvation wages - for example in Asian cheap factories, which sometimes burn down with the workers locked in them so that we can buy even cheaper clothes. To illustrate the consequences of our economic system, Christian Felber turns upside down - and back on his feet again.
The prices of our products lie
The Austrian also wants to bring back the economy there. “Money”, says the economic theorist, has “moved from being a means to an end to an end in itself”. Companies are considered successful when they increase their profits regardless of losses. These “externalize” most companies: costs for water consumption, air pollution, bee deaths, species decline, accident victims or the consequential costs of global warming such as droughts, floods or dykes against rising sea levels do not appear in any company balance sheet. The bill goes to the general public and the following generations. We live on credit.
“Those who do business responsibly have competitive disadvantages and those who harm our society and the environment have price and competitive advantages. That is perverse. "
Christian Felser
To change that, Felber and some fellow campaigners developed the common good economy. To date, more than 600 companies, cities and municipalities have been examined and assessed by independent auditors according to 20 criteria for the common good. The criteria are respect for human dignity, justice, ecological sustainability, democratic participation and transparency.
The auditors check whether the company or the community is adhering to these four basic values in its relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, neighbors and competitors. Points are awarded, for example, for employee participation, economical use of raw materials, environmentally friendly mobility, vegan food made from regional ingredients in the canteen, donations to non-profit organizations, solar systems on the roof, durable, repairable products, contracts with green electricity providers or a small wage spread.
The goal: The best paid person - usually the boss - should receive a maximum of five times as much salary as the person with the lowest wage. The supply chains, the distribution of profits, regional economic cycles and the financial system are also assessed. Those who put their money in a sustainable bank like the Ethics bank, GLS or Triodos, is better off in the public good balance.
“In business, it should be like a successful relationship. We treat each other with mutual respect and listen to each other. "
Christian Felser
“Property obliges”, it says in Article 14, paragraph 2 of the Basic Law. “Its use should also serve the common good.” But in the competition, companies that do not care about the social and ecological consequences of their economic activity prevail. They lower their costs at the expense of the general public, thus producing cheaper and pushing competition out of the market. Take agriculture as an example: if you lock your animals in stables as narrow as possible, feed them antibiotics as a preventive measure against disease and overfertilize the soil, you will find the cheapest food. The discounters dictate the lowest prices.
Fairytale economy
At the same time, Germany will soon have to pay almost 800.000 euros per day to the European Union for too much nitrate in the groundwater because farmers overfertilize their fields with too much slurry. The treatment of drinking water is becoming more and more complex for the waterworks. The economy privatizes profits by socializing losses. The price of using antibiotics in the stables: Resistant bacteria against which people can no longer protect themselves. Taxpayers and fee payers subsidize the animal fattening farms not only with the money from the EU agricultural budget.
Reinhard Raffenberg calls our economic system “fairy tale economy”. In Detmold he runs the vegetarian restaurant with a partner VeraVeggie with their own vegetable garden and works for them Foundation for the Economy for the Common Good NRW. This advertises Christian Felber's concept with start-up capital of 300.000 euros. She is converting a disused furniture factory into a sustainable commercial property in neighboring Steinheim for around 1,2 million euros: renewable energies, coworking space, offices and plenty of space for working together on a sustainable economy. The building belongs to the pharmacist Albrecht Binder, who has accounted his two pharmacies according to the common good economy.
He achieved 455 out of 1000 possible points in the first run. “A lot,” says the 58-year-old, and mentions the advantages: “The employees called in sick less often and identified with the company even more than before.” The first public welfare balance showed “what we are already doing for more sustainability and fair working conditions without being aware of it in detail. ”Binder was astonished that, despite the electric car and economical use of resources, he did not do so well on the subject of“ ecological sustainability ”. Before doing the second assessment, he created a CO2 balance for the pharmacies, thereby doubling his score in the field of ecology. Much does not appear in the balance sheet for the common good because nobody wrote it down.
Binder has also stepped up with the required transparency and employee participation: his branch managers were amazed when he asked them for suggestions on how to distribute the profit. As a full merchant, he is not allowed to involve employees in the company. But in numerous conversations they decided together how much the boss should earn each month. The remaining profit is reinvested or donated to local charities. The customers have a say in who gets the money. For this purpose, Binder has set up a box for every possible recipient in his pharmacies. Those who shop in the pharmacy can throw in wooden coins and thus have a say in who the next donations go to.
The pharmacist, business economist and entrepreneur, thinks little of “work-life balance”. Rather, the company aims to provide its 25 employees and customers with additional quality of life. He sees meaningful work as part of a fulfilled life.
Another plus point: As everywhere, the companies in the Höxter district are looking for skilled workers. The unemployment rate is around four percent. Transparency, fair working conditions and salaries help to keep employees in the company. In this way, the company saves costs for recruiting and training new employees.
The balance sheet for the common good is also suitable as a unique selling point, a marketing tool and for what is now known as employer branding. Numerous studies show that young, highly qualified people in particular are looking for a job that makes sense. The Goodjobs.eu portal only mediates such jobs, especially in non-profit organizations and particularly sustainable companies. The operators report that the number of their page visits has doubled every year since it was founded in 2016, as has the number of jobs on offer.
More and more investors are now paying attention to the sustainability of the companies in which they invest. Promised at the turn of the year Blackrock- Managing Director Larry Fink, his company will "make sustainability an integral part of the portfolio". Climate risks are already investment risks today. The world's largest financial investor manages around seven trillion US dollars in assets.
Centennial work
In the Höxter district, the business development company also supports entrepreneurs such as Binder and municipalities in accounting for the common good. There are grants from the European Union's LEADER program. In nine of the ten towns in the district, the councils have decided to also draw up public welfare balances for their municipality.
Hermann Bluhm, CDU mayor of the small town of Willebadessen (8.300 inhabitants) sees “that more and more people perceive the current economic system as unjust” because only a few benefit from the growing productivity. His city has already reduced its consumption of fossil fuels by 90 percent, heating the swimming pool, school center and town hall with the waste heat from a biogas plant. The cleaning staff are still employed by the city. Here they would be paid decently. With the balance for the common good, Willebadessen wants to show what is already good. Bluhm is primarily concerned with the changes in the minds of the citizens - and the employees in the town hall. The rethinking will take a long time: "This is at least a work of the century".
Axel Meyer has also experienced how difficult it is to convert to a more sustainable economy. He founded it around 30 years ago in Detmold Taoasis, a manufacturer of fragrances and essential oils made from organic ingredients. The company now has around 50 full-time employees and generates annual sales of around ten million euros. In its first public good balance, Taoasis achieved 642 points. “Many criteria do not fit every company,” criticizes Meyer, who runs the company together with his son.
He offered further training and employee participation that earn points as well as electric bicycles and a charging station on the premises. However, neither of these met with little interest in the workforce. He also had disadvantages because the first floor of his company headquarters is not barrier-free. “How are we supposed to influence that as tenants?” Asks Meyer and also rejects other criticism: For the public good balance, he should completely disclose the recipes of his scented oils. However, he did not want to reveal more than the ingredients. The recipes are his most important asset. Taoasis therefore even decided not to export the products to the USA. The US customs had also requested the exact composition of the oils and perfumes.
In fact, one can argue about the criteria for the common good and their evaluation in detail. The question is who will determine them in which procedure. Felber, like Reinhard Raffenberg from the Common Welfare Foundation, refers to a “democratic process” in which this should be continuously developed. Finally, the parliaments passed other laws that the economy had to adhere to. The legislature has also laid down the content and form of today's financial balance sheets in the Commercial Code. “We have to decide whether we want pure capitalism or an economic order that distributes wealth and productivity gains more fairly and in which everyone can participate.
The economy for the common good will only prevail if politics demonstrably grants advantages to companies oriented towards the common good. Christian Felber recommends, for example, tax reductions, priority in the award of public contracts and cheaper loans for companies that are successfully accounted for for the common good. In the end, this would only compensate for a few disadvantages that they accept for their consideration for the general public. At least a start has been made with the introduction of a price on CO2 emissions.
Info:
In the meantime, more than 2000 companies, cities and municipalities support the economy for the common good. More than 600 have already drawn up one or more public good balances.
For example: the Sparda-Bank Munich, the outdoor clothing manufacturer VauDe, the Detmold natural fragrance manufacturer Taoasis, which grows and processes its own organic lavender in the region, several hotels and conference centers of the Green Pearls association, the daily newspaper taz, the organic The Märkisches Landbrot bakery, the bathing company of Stadtwerke München, the frozen food manufacturer Ökofrost, the advertising agency Werk Zwei in Bielefeld, several companies in the state of Baden-Württemberg (where the economy of the common good is a goal in the coalition agreement of the green-black state government) the Mattias Eigenbrodt dental practice in Berlin, several municipalities in Austria.
The procedure:
1. The companies create a self-assessment according to the evaluation matrix of the common good economy
2. Then apply for the balance sheet at the umbrella organization ecogood.org
3. You then go through the audit and receive a certificate of your score.
Alternatively, the balance sheet can be drawn up in a peer group with other companies and accompanied by a consultant.
Accounting costs: depending on the size of the company and the process, between 3.000 and 20.000 euros.
Links:
ecogood.org
Foundation for Economy for the Common Good
Public welfare region in the district of Höxter
Economic development in the district of Höxter
The Public Value Atlas examined the contribution of German organizations and companies to the common good according to the criteria “task fulfillment, cohesion, quality of life and morality”. 1st place went to the fire brigades in 2019, 2nd place to the technical relief organization THW. gemeinschaftwohlatlas.de
All information about the common good here.
