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By Ronen Zilberman, Associated Press
John Paul DeJoria, right, co-founder of the John Paul Mitchell
hairstyling product line, tells a Pacific Basin Economic Council
conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village yesterday that being
good corporate citizens is a better way to conduct business than
being unresponsive. Ford Motor Vice Chairman
W. Wayne Booker is on the left.

Corporations
told to search soul
to fulfill global
responsibilities

PBEC addresses the need to
safeguard the environment and to
help developing nations

Isles told get hep to high-tech
Steve Forbes slams Hawaii taxes, regulation

By Ben DiPietro
Associated Press

FORMER Ecuador President Sixto Duran-Ballen has been attending meetings on international trade since the 1950s.

Since then, he has heard time and again from corporate and government leaders about the need for companies to take care of the environment and help less-developed nations and others who are not sharing the benefits of global trade.

What he hasn't heard yet, in nearly a half-century of talk, is how to make those changes happen.

"The subjects we are talking about here, more or less, are the same that we have talked about for almost a half-century," Duran-Ballen said yesterday during a discussion on corporate responsibility at the Pacific Basin Economic Council's international general meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

"All we're hearing is about studies and making money, making money, progressing," Duran-Ballen said. "This is the first session, thank God, where PBEC shows it has a soul -- a social soul -- (and) that we worry about the human beings, not just about making money." Duran-Ballen, Ecuador's president from 1992 to 1996, wanted the PBEC meeting to recommend how to address the gap between developed and developing nations.

"Are we going to have recommendations here so that some of the money we are talking about goes to the developing countries?" he asked. "The developed nations impose the price of what they sell us and also impose the price of what they buy from us. And the gap is always bigger."

Being a good corporate citizen is the best way to conduct business and improve the bottom line, said John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of the John Paul Mitchell line of hairstyling products.

Whether it's working locally, nationally or internationally, doing what's right and letting customers and others know about it are the best ways to protect the environment, empower employees, make money and leave behind a proud legacy, DeJoria said.

"Obviously, a lot of people here aren't involved in giving back, but it's all about telling them why they should. If they don't get their act together they will have more Seattles," he said, referring to street protests and problems that marred the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in December.

"I am Seattle, but I'm here," said DeJoria, who is chairman and CEO of Beverly Hills, Calif.-based John Paul Mitchell Systems. "I am heavily involved in many environmental events, but I'm also a corporate owner and a director. So I'm in here talking from a corporate point of view and as one of those who also would be speaking in Seattle and waving banners."

Sir Peter Blake, head of the Team New Zealand yacht racing syndicate that retained the America's Cup this year and a lead explorer for the Cousteau Society, spoke about the effects of pollution and poor corporate citizenship on the environment.

By Ronen Zilberman, Associated Press
Maureen Reagan, daughter of former President Ronald Reagan,
tells the PBEC conference yesterday that corporations who donate
to charitable foundations and medical research are making
investments that could keep workers and customers healthy,
which will improve their bottom lines.

"Species are disappearing. The oceans are still being used as a dumping ground," Blake said. "The ice caps are melting at a faster and faster rate.

"I don't think you need to be a scientist to understand that we are all looking at a situation that is getting worse by the day."

Maureen Reagan, daughter of former President Ronald Reagan and a national board member of the Alzheimer's Society, said corporate philanthropy is smart business.

She said money donated to help find cures for diseases and illnesses will benefit companies by giving them healthier workers, who will miss less time at work caring for themselves or sick loved ones.

"These are your people," she said.

While corporations should work to improve world we all live in, Dr. Nay Htun, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, said the debate also needs to consider what, if any, limits there are to corporate responsibility.

"Where and what should be the limit of corporate responsibility in the face of global integration, economically and socially?" Htun asked.

"On environmental issues that affect global consequences, what is the limit? On social issues that affect gender, marginalize and disenfranchise women, the old and infirm, where should be the limit?"