The dawn of a new world
An economy benefiting all
We stand in the midst of change. Old structures are crumbling away and the neccesity for a completely new system is becoming clear to more and more people. Hardly anyone is happy with the way things are right now, but at the same time, many don't want to go back to "business as usual" either. The desire for a fundamentally different, more sustainable approach oriented towards the common good is growing, also at a political level. And thus its realization is gaining momentum, for which many people have already set course.
One example is the Economy for Common Good, ECG for short, which is a civic initiative that was founded in Austria in 2010 and is now active worldwide. More than 2000 companies support the ECG, of which approximately 500 are members and have already received a common good certificate. And so did MOIN!
But what exactly is the ECG?
The ECG is an ethical economic model with the following vision: "The purpose of economic activity should not be to maximize profits, but to make a maximum contribution to a good life for all".
It is therefore about an alternative economic system in which the success of a company is not measured by profit, but by the extent to which it contributes to the well-being of people and the environment.
MOIN was born out of just such an idea. "Love thy neighbour as thyself" was and is the principle on which our daily work is based. We make good food for other people! And in doing so we feel obliged to social welfare.
Hence it was an obvious choice to have our company assessed according to the criterias of the ECG. We consider this model to be absolutely forward-looking and therefore actively participate in the creation of a social, ecological and democratic society by establishing this new evaluation process. In an interview published in the current issue of the magazine Schrot&Korn, ECG-co-founder Christian Felber speaks of a "culture of higher awareness". This is a culture based on the common good, balance, transparency and the freedom of responsible people. Felber also speaks about "ecological human rights", which refer to the consumption of organic resources which is necessary to cover our basic needs but does not neglect the protection of our Earth. These human rights would thus simultaneously provide rights protecting our Earth from exploitation and overuse.
In our current situation, the concept of a "common good economy" is experiencing a rapidly growing response. We may well be dealing with a prime example of a blessing in disguise, since this critical period can provide the necessary impetus for the development of new systems of direct democracy and new forms of economic activity.
With this in mind, we are very pleased to inform you about our first common good balance certification. And we are also a little bit proud to have attained 533 out of 1000 points at our very first audit.
In order to understand this figure a bit better, it helps to know that the average score at a first audit ranges between 300 and 400 points. 1000 points is the maximum score in this evaluation process, which is hardly attainable in our (still) existing economic system though, because its orientation is simply a very different one. If we were to do business purely according to the current legislation, we would be talking 0 points. But as already mentioned, more and more people stand up for a truly valuable economy benefiting all and our 533 points show us: We’re on the right track!
At the same time, the close inspection of our company has brought to light aspects we want to improve. For the next two years we have set ourselves a number of goals. Short-term goals are the improvement of health management in production and the installation of a solar energy system. We are also looking forward to the opening of our on-side factory shop, an employee project with which we would like to make a contribution to the local community. In the longer term, we want to set up a comprehensive health management system for all employees and make changes to work schedules in favour of our employees’ work-life balance. Finally, we will address all those areas in which - as our score has made obvious to us - there is clearly room for improvement, for example in terms of internal codecision and transparency. And while we are on the subject of transparency, here you can see our certificate:
You can find more information about the GWÖ here: https://www.ecogood.org/de/