Smart Alliance : How a Global Corporation and Environmental Activists Transformed a Tarnished Brand Hardback

by J. Gary Taylor, Patricia J. Scharlin

Part of the Yale Agrarian Studies Series series

Hardback

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Description

A profit-driven multinational corporation and an upstart group of environmentalists surprise the world and forge an astonishingly successful partnership Large and wealthy global companies too often fail to acknowledge environmental responsibility or workersâ€™ rights.

This book tells the dramatic story of one companyâ€”Chiquita Brands Internationalâ€”that decided to change the negative paradigm.

Formerly the notorious United Fruit Company, a paternalistic organization that gave the name â€œBanana Republicâ€ to tropical countries in Central America, Chiquita defied all expectations in the mid-1990s by forming an innovative pact with the Rainforest Alliance that transformed not only the corporation itself but also an important segment of the banana industry. Gary Taylor and Patricia Scharlin reveal the inside story of how corporate executives, banana workers, local leaders, and conservation advocates learned to work together and trust one another.

Over the objections of skeptical critics, Chiquita and the Rainforest Alliance established a Better Banana â€œseal of approvalâ€ to certify genuine efforts to improve soil and water quality, ensure rainforest conservation, and enhance worker health and safety.

This chronicle of their collaboration, told objectively and with extensive documentation, presents a promising new model of cooperative behavior--a model that shows how multinational companies can become motivated to solve critical global problems.