Task 1

According to household products and personal-care company Seventh Generation, corporate

responsibility is in its DNA as it considers the effects of its actions on the next seven generations. It
strives to limit the effect of all aspects of its products on the environment, from development to their
production, purchase, use, and disposal. Visit the company’s website at www.seventhgeneration.com.
Then answer the following questions:
1. What is the social mission of Seventh Generation?
2. What are Seventh Generation’s four aspirations?
3. How is Seventh Generation involved in improving the Vermont community?
4. How does Seventh Generation communicate the company’s social mission to its customers?

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Task 2
Warby Parker/Visionspring

Warby Parker is a relatively new player in the eyewear industry, but it’s managed to make a big impact in
a short amount of time. Neil Blumenthal and his three partners founded the company in 2010 in order to
sell sophisticated and affordable glasses frames. But the team also wants the brand to stand for more than
just profits, as evidenced by its commitment to keeping prices low and its relationship with its charitable
partner, VisionSpring. Unlike other start-ups that face competition from many established companies,
Warby Parker only has one major competitor. However, it just so happens that this rival owns almost all
of the bestselling eyewear and eyecare brands in the world. Since this large conglomerate doesn’t create
any barriers to upstarts like Warby Parker from entering the market, it is technically not a monopoly and
can operate legally. Still, Warby’s founders see this business model as unethical since it allows one huge
company to set prices over an entire industry for maximum profit.

Blumenthal and his partners didn’t want to contribute to the imbalance of power between consumers and
manufacturers, so they set out to form a different kind of company. From the outset, Warby Parker
developed an ethical standard that focused on its most important stakeholder— its customers. Since the
company saves money by selling exclusively online and designing and manufacturing its own frames, it is
able to fix the price of every pair at a modest $95. Considering that its competitor’s frames can be as
costly as a new iPhone, Warby immediately caught the interest of many stylish but budget-minded
consumers. An organization operates in a larger world, and there are more stakeholders than just
customers.

Warby Parker felt it had a mission to bring affordable eyewear to the masses, and nobody needed that tool
more than impoverished people in developing nations. It was a natural thing, then, for the company to
join forces with VisionSpring, a charity that gives quality eyeglasses to people struggling with vision
problems in some of the poorest countries in the world. Warby donates a pair of glasses to the nonprofit
for every pair that its customers buy. Together, they have put over a half-million pairs of glasses into the
hands of people whose livelihoods depend on them. VisionSpring hopes this model will inspire other
American companies to get more involved in impacting global markets at the local level. For all its
efforts, Vision- Spring estimates that there are still over 700 million people worldwide who struggle to
earn a living on account of lacking quality glasses. The folks at Warby Parker and Vision- Spring believe
that once you see that figure clearly, it’s hard to look the other way.

Questions
1. Is Warby Parker a good example of corporate social responsibility? What dimensions stand out in
measuring the company’s social performance?
2. What is a social audit and why do companies perform them? What factors would you consider in your
social audit of Warby Parker?
3. Do you believe most businesses in the United States follow strict ethical standards? Make sure to offer
some defense in support of your answer.

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