Blow Drying the Future

Traveling last week, I wouldn’t have predicted a stop at McDonald’s would embroil my thoughts in such a high stakes financial conundrum. I went in for coffee and came out concerned about my retirement IRA. It wasn’t the price of the coffee. It was the hand dryers.

Often I don’t wait around in the restroom while hot air dries my hands. A few seconds of air followed by a quick couple of wipes across my pockets gets me out faster. But business attire with wet handprints projects a sloppy image, so I kept my hands under the blast while re-reading the engraved metal plate. It assured me I was helping to save trees and the environment. This always makes me feel good.

Then it occurred to me that this hand drying method might be sabotaging my future. Last fall “the experts” suggested in the volatile stock market environment, one should own stock in companies not subject to consumer cycles, so I bought stock in a paper company. Now I considered how the hand dryer could lower my future income by reducing paper towel sales.

You see the dilemma? I’m in the intersection of Profit and Principle. When my 401k was in one of the mutual funds offered by my employer’s benefit plan, I didn’t keep track of exactly which stocks made up the fund, never mind researching the sustainability practices of each company. My focus was on accumulating savings.

I’m not saying I was unaware of corporate responsibility.

In 2002, wearing the hat of environmental stewardship manager for a publicly traded corporation, I researched the rigorous requirements for Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Companies use these analysis tools to gain listing in an index fund made up of companies deemed socially responsible, for example, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), a group of world-class companies that meet environmental, social and economic standards. I investigated to find out if perhaps my employer could qualify.

Smackdown. Our company would not qualify. Way too small for the DJSI. Thus, I wandered away from following sustainability indexes. Now in charge of my own investing and feeling ambiguous about my paper company, I’m looking at other sustainability funds.

One large sustainability index investment fund is pushing some companies to change by adding proposals to the annual shareholder proxy vote. The fund owns a ton of shares in these companies. Six of the proposals targeted sustainable forestry and climate change.

Four of six large corporations managed to work out an agreement and therefore had the shareholder proposals withdrawn; in return, the companies would begin reporting on their sustainability practices.

My paper company did not respond. “Fie upon thee, oh my paper company!”

Perhaps I overreact. Further research raises concerns on the future of all paper companies. I’m coming back with more info.

BTW: Energy reports indicate that using electric hand dryers does consume less energy than manufacturing paper.

BUT I also found this: The Handwashing For Life Institute (HFL), an association of food service suppliers that includes paper makers, argues that hand dryers have "no place" in restaurant or cafeteria washrooms or in other situations where food is being handled. "Most users walk away with wet hands and wet hands transfer bacteria 500 times more readily than dry hands," says the group’s website. HFL advocates paper towels over dryers because they "remove bacteria from hands and reduce general bacterial counts by an average of 58 percent."