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This weekend, I’ve got something for you to ponder. This particular ponderable has some moss growing on it, so you’ll have to bear with me on that score, and take my word for it that this all starts going somewhere practical next week, and isn’t just a completely self-indulgent thought experiment:

Via Sam Brown

Your firm was hired to design the next generation mp3 player by a global company XCorp. You, in your best attempt to be a responsible designer, went above and beyond the call of the specification, designing the device for manufacture with recycled materials. They were resistent at first, but you insisted, explaining the branding and sales value of ecologically-friendly technology, and you perservered, resulting in the first ever sustainable technology product from XCorp. Good for you!

The next month, you read in the New York Times that as XCorp entered the production phase on your design, they had shut down a factory in Allentown rather than retrofit it for the newly-required production techniques. As a result 300 jobs were lost, moved to a sweatshop in Cambodia.

Now, did your firm do the right thing? Substantiate your answer. I’ll start to substantiate mine next week. Until then!