Moral imagination, Buddhist economy, and social accounting: an analysis of the interplay in the Patagonia case

Business and ethics have always been considered as an oxymoron probably because of the recent financial crisis and scandals in business due to questionable made decisions. The study of Business Ethics should help businessman of large and small companies to make better decision developing a good judgement and critical thinking in business practices when law is not enough. In fact, law does not cover any moral issue in economy and business ethics intervenes in the area in which business decisions conflict with values. It is the time to be aware of the impact of business decisions at moral level and the organizations' possibilities to give a significant commitment to society and to place them in real life in the general business process. Things have changed and nowadays business has the potential to provide a major contribution to the society and to tackle with the emergency regarding our planet. During the last years, many philosophers have worked to create an ethical decision-making criterion in order to give managers a guideline to extricate themselves in ethical dilemmas. A modern approach focuses carefully on thinking creatively about potential actions and being moral imaginative considering possible alternatives. Moral imagination is “the ability to imaginatively discern various possibilities for acting within a given situation to envision the potential help and harm that are likely to result from a given action”. It enhances the creativity ability to go beyond the limits imposed by our mind and to develop the capacity to see things from another perspective. Moral imagination has a central role in the debate about the hot topic of this time: sustainability. Today sustainability is urgencies and companies' mission, even if we do not still have a single definition and a unique way to do sustainability and be sustainable. To move towards sustainability, it is necessary to go beyond the limits imposed by our mind and the context where we live, in order to build up another, and perhaps unusual, environmental ethics that provides moral limits to consumption and alternative meaning of growth and personal satisfaction Buddhist economy principles are opposite to those of conventional mainstreams economies, but perhaps they are more coherent with the real purpose behind sustainability engagement providing the teaching of less consumption. Buddhist economies' principles are far from steady growth and industrial massive production, selfishness of people and materialistic fulfilment, adopting distinctive way to measure happiness which contradict compulsive consumption. At this purpose, it is needed a theoretical framework which embedded moral imagination's attributes and Buddhist economy's holistic teachings to reframe the social accounting system. Social accounting scheme, if creatively reframed has the chance to change the perception of business and the way to make business. Patagonia is the exemplary company that chose to make business following Buddhist theories and moral imagination perspective and its success is due to the demand reduction, clothes repair system and its concrete engagement to save the home Planet.