Nestle and the business of morality

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash

The issue of ethics and business comes up a lot, with respect to the Ukraine war, Black Lives Matter, transgender rights and more.

When I was writing an openDemocracy piece on the subject, I found opinions deeply split on whether business can ever be moral, which is to say do the right thing, irrespective of profit or loss.

I asked people who study the issue and others who wrestle with it: Does the profit drive mean companies are fundamentally incapable of delivering real social justice or a healthy planet.

One professor of philosophy, who studies ethics in business said a nuanced answer was in order: “If we assume that ethics requires actions that are done purely for duty’s sake or because the ethical action is the right one to do, then for-profit businesses by nature cannot satisfy this demand. They will always be at least partly motivated by profit.” But he acknowledged that even “for-profit businesses can increase social welfare to some extent whil…