The Cooperatition Incubator

‘How to’ Guide | RaceToTheTop.org

‘RaceToTheTop.org’ is a provisional name for a concept we are developing for a website that enables consumers to compare (cut by companies and sectors)  the support and delivery of a range of voluntary agreements and standards.  The website would also encourage suggestions for voluntary agreements and standards, and facilitate their implementation.  This builds on the suggestion of the ‘Conservative Working Group on Responsible Business’ report (2008)  that with more than 30 Private Voluntary Initiatives (e.g. FSC) in existence a biannual review of their progress should be commissioned to discover the lessons learned.

The website would seek to address concerns (which we believe to be borne out by the Australian example) that even if such exemptions to competition law were available that businesses/ trade associations would not necessarily take them up to a sufficient extent.  The short-term economic incentives might still not be there.

The website would be a responsible business Wikipedia of sorts with added functionality.  The information on the site, including references to Fair Trade/FSC accreditation, for example, could also be used to provide the basis for a kind of ‘meta’ responsible consumerism label.

We believe this would enable bottom up, as well as top down, development of Responsibility Deals – and/or trade associations or regulatory agencies (not just Whitehall) to take on more of a leadership role.