The Capitalism of Conscience

We’re slowly moving to a next big trend wave called Conscious Capitalism. If you‘re asking exactly what this is, I’ll give you some examples:

• Buying “green”

• Thinking before buying at all

• Buying “faith”

• Socially conscious investments

• Altering production methods and/or ingredients to do less harm to the planet

• Altering energy sources for production and/or manufacture

• Adjusting the work calendar/schedule to better serve workers’ needs

• Leading from the middle instead of the top

• Taking time for the spiritual self in spite of location

• Relaxing dress codes for maximum comfort

• Employer-sponsored classes for stress reduction, smoking cessation, etc.


Things like this are happening all over—in business, in school, in personal lives—and it’s going to get bigger. We’re all going to start doing well by doing better for ourselves, and it will start from the top down. CEOs will meditate on yoga mats in their offices, solar panels will become part and parcel of every new home, McDonald’s will offer flex-schedule workweeks, prayer will be conducted in cubicles, ties may become a thing of the past, and your boss will seek out ways to do business that harmonizes with the planet. They’ll have to.

To be “conscious” means to be awake and aware. To have “conscience” is to believe in doing no harm to others, even if the others are inanimate objects. We are slowly awakening to the truths about our society and what it’s doing to our world, and it’s starting to weigh on our conscience. We will do better for ourselves and our beliefs by voting with our wallets, and corporations will hear us (they’re hearing us already). To capture, and continue capturing, the almighty dollar from us, they will have to bend to our buying desires. If they don’t, they know the consequences—whether they come from shareholders or the consuming public. Simply put, there won’t be shareholders or consumers for their products or services.

Employers are already hearing the siren song of workers, in low wage jobs going unfilled by Americans, formerly-unreasonable demands for time off or special scheduling, and the coverage of such things as classes for stress reduction and smoking cessation.

I am human, hear me roar!

The fight to ignore or otherwise hold out until the very last second on adoption of the looming wave of conscious capitalism and conscientious consumers will go on until every last cent of cheaper alternatives and ideas has been spent. The foot-dragging will be fun to watch as soldier after soldier goes down in battle trying to protect the traditional, the has-been, and the refuse-to-be.

Meanwhile, the rest of us who’ve gotten the clue will be busy doing well by doing better for ourselves—through nutrition, whole self attention, and necessary purchases with more than one thought going into them. We will look upstream and down to see if harm will be done, then we will look within ourselves before making a casual purchase. We will demand that manufacturers produce with our interests and the planet’s in mind, and that company sales and marketing treat us with intelligence and respect.

For once, we will be in the driver’s seat with our hands on the wheel. This is what a consumer-driven economy is meant to be, and it will change the current face of capitalism as we know it.

By then, corporations will have gotten the hint that “green” and “God” sell to people as well as their wallets.