Ethics demands looking beyond the obviousness and pursuing the third bank of the river

A pacific tone, reminding us to be careful with and protect life, opened the roundtable entitled “The Sustainability Ethics: Commitment to the Society” at the Ethos Institute 2008 International Conference. Chaired by the Chief Executive of AccountAbillity, Simon Zadek, the debate included Mario Sergio Cortella, philosopher, with Master’s and PhD degrees in Education from PUC-SP, and Georg Kell, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact. 

The first questions raised by the moderator guided the debate: Why do we do what we do? How do we understand the change process? How do we translate it into the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? How to make the right combination so that changes are understood and become effective practices in the companies?

Cortella quoted the British writer and politician Benjamin Disraeli, who said that “life is too short to be little.” Cortella believes the strongest value of sustainability ethics is not limiting life, and therefore it is necessary to be aware of mortality. The philosopher thinks we need rules that remind us we are mortal – the idea of mortality helps us realize we do not have all the rights. In this line of thought, Cortella believes that the most important ethical value for building a sustainability awareness is humbleness – which, according to him, is different from subservience. “We must understand that the sustainability ethics means living life with humbleness. Our task is living more gracefully and carefully,” says he.

Always mentioning the meaning and origin of words, the educationalist stressed that happiness cannot be separated from the idea of fruitfulness: “A fruitful life is the one that happens in its most favorable condition, that is, with sustainability. The sustainability ethics is the one that contributes to a fruitful life without threatening the vitality of life as a whole, which is being threatened by our own arrogance.”

Desire for peace is in all of us

Georg Kell believes that everyone, regardless of where they have been raised or where they live, have similar aspirations, such as improvement in life conditions. “The desire for peace, collaboration and cooperation is in all of us. The United Nations Organization itself was founded based on this premise,” adds he.

Kell recalled that in 2008 we are celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “It’s a milestone, an advance.” This year we are also celebrating the 10^th anniversary of the Ethos Institute – Business and Social Responsibility. Ten years mean a lot for the CSR movement, even knowing that maturity is far away. But one doubt comes up: What will the next ten years be like in the sphere of human rights and corporate social responsibility?

Focusing on the business theme, Georg Kell stressed that organizations are made of people and these people make choices. “We live in a time defined by political and economic reasoning, but we are able to create values and connect them to this reasoning,” says he. Kell believes there is a third power, beyond good and evil: the desire for discovery.

Many companies around the world acknowledge they must deal with problems, no matter whether environmental, social or of a different nature. They are sometimes opportunistic, but the global market is interconnected to such an extent that it makes them vulnerable. “The risk is higher nowadays due to the interconnectivity. There are opportunities for expansion and more access to different markets. Therefore, creating values and connecting them is critical,” says Kell. In his opinion, well grounded values can foster a sustainability culture: “By repeating and reviving stories we can learn the lesson.”

“The same awareness that brings up the problem creates the ability to solve it,” says Cortella. “The world lives under a clear economy based on market rules. We must make the sustainability paradigms set the market rules.” The educationalist quoted another well-known expression to explain this economic relationship: “The market or your life.” According to him, we are building mankind based on appearance, when actually we should base life on ethical values. And the construction of an ethical society is neither simple, nor superficial, nor evident. “The third bank of the river is not where obviousness is,” says Cortella.

Ethics, in turn, is not something cosmetic, cannot be considered as a label. “Acting ethically means believing we should not do just any kind of business,” says he. Cortella cited educationalist Paulo Freire, saying that “it’s important to have hope, but hoping doesn’t mean waiting. It’s truly difficult, but we can never say it’s impossible.”

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