Shilpa Unalkat, Conscious Business Consultant

Innocent sold out to Coca Cola for £30m - so what?

I met Richard Reed the co-founder of Innocent Drinks at the Be The Change conference in London. He shook things up by his opening gambit 'capitalism has won' and to many this may sound like a prophetic statement. Months later we hear about the Coca Cola buy out of his company. This is not the first ethical company that has sold it's soul for expansion as Alex Renton describes in his Guardian blog: http://is.gd/NuCZ

So what's wrong with getting in bed with a corporate giant? In case you are not familiar with Coca-Cola's background and world-wide reputation, you may find it interesting to have a bit of a read on the subject. Mark Thomas's recent book, Belching Out the Devil, provides an up-to-date and thoroughly researched account of Coca-Cola's current activities in these areas. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belching-Out-Devil-Adventures-Coca-Cola/dp/0091922933

Some of the main allegations against Coca Cola as outlined in Mark Thomas’s book are summarised below:

*Colombia - Allegations of intimidation and murder of trade unionists working for the Company.

*India - Coke forced to close two of four plants where operations put the local communities’ water in danger, after protests and legal challenges.

*Allegations of union busting in Turkey and Ireland.

*Allegations of Coke's sugar being produced with the help of child labour in El Salvador.

*In Mexico the courts found the company was in breach of anti-monopoly laws and that they intimidated some of the poorest shop owners.

Sheep Poo Paper™ - consciously upsetting convention

I've recently learned of a company in Snowdonia (Creative Paper Wales) who make paper from sheep poo!  Sounds horrible I know, but I'm assured it smells fine.

The raw ingredient (the ewe doo doo) is collected by hand, fresh from the mountainside around their mill - a previously dis-used building left behind after the local slate quarry shut down. Back inside, the undigested fibre is separated from the other waste material by boiling and washing. This process produces the fibre which goes on to become paper and, "as a by-product it also produces a clean, sterile, rich, liquid fertilizer which we store in a tank at the mill and pass on to local growers."

So not only are they taking a waste product and creating 2 useful products from it (which is fantastic enough), but they've also revitalised a 'dead' building and are contributing to the local economy. I've been reading through their website and am excited by their ever-so-slightly provocative 'environmental' statement about why they are making sheep poo paper. Here is an abridged version: