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How Business Can Be A Force For Good

As Director of Responsible Sourcing for a large retail company, I was visiting a fabric mill located in the south of India to ensure that the facility was meeting our standards for worker safety and well-being. I walked around the facility, observing workers stationed at large, mechanical weaving machines. I saw personal protective equipment, freedom of movement, and no chemical hazards. After another few hours of investigating, I was assured by the good conditions of the facility and found myself thinking about the circularity of my career path.

Ten years ago, I was also observing weavers in India, but they weren’t working on large machines. They were weaving by hand. Back then, I was working for a nonprofit organization that supported artisans in their traditional crafts.

Now, I work for a large corporation, supporting workers in factories built through the onset of globalization and special economic zones that attracted development. While the company I work for does not own factories, we have a responsibility to ensure that goods are produced responsibly. And we take that responsibility very seriously.

Since my first feature in a Forté article, Environmentalist Finds a Place in Business, I have been passionate about the social and environmental impact of business. I event went on to get my MBA at The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth so that I could have more business knowledge and know how to make a bigger impact.

With the tools I learned in the Tuck MBA program and on the ground in India, I am so grateful to have forged my passion into a career. Every day, my team and I work on ensuring that production is carried out by our suppliers with respect to human rights and the environment. We are one small piece of the business role in sustainable development.

Whether I am working with weavers in a village or workers in a factory, I have never stopped asking myself how business can be a force for good. This singular question has been the most important one of my career.

Read Jamie’s beginnings and start this series to see where Jamie’s career has taken her!

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