Typically, huge corporations have not become huge by acting in a very sustainable way. One of the “auditors” to Leo Hickman postulated for example that it would be better not to buy from Siemens, as the company is also a supplier of parts to nuclear power plants. However, the very best energy saving light bulbs come from Osram, a Siemens subsidiary and so do probably a million other items that make a lot of sense.

My take on this is the following: Huge corporations typically have a dramatic advantage in installed customer base, logistics, etc. This is true for super market chains as well as huge industrial companies like Siemens. If I as a consumer can have a very good, sensible product from one of these suppliers, I typically do not hesitate to do so.

In my view, it is the product you buy and the product you don’t buy that matters, not the companies you are buying from.

I tend to draw the line only at particularly “evil” companies, who regularly employ child labour, or are engaged in arms production. The latter applies mostly to my investment decisions, not to purchasing decisions.

The same could be said for specific countries. We all buy products from China every single day. I would not mind at all buying products from China. Some estimates say that “China is pulling 1 Million people out of poverty every year”. This is a good thing.

I just mind buying junk that has been manufactured using the worst chemicals poisoning the workers and also the users of the finished product. And my problem is that I can’t tell which is which. Last week it was published that the customs officers in the port of Hamburg now are wearing gas masks when they routinely inspect containers from Asia, as the otherwise risk their health due to substances that evaporate from cheap plastics.