South Africa, Sept. 8 -- If you want to really make a difference to the society in which you operate, a cynical European businessman I know says, then make your products more affordable. Take the money you would spend doing good needs for perhaps a small minority of needy people (or animals, or biospheres) and do good across a broader front by lowering your prices.

I don't think the equation of corporate holiness is that easily solved, though. and there are corporates who, in this country particularly, do good work funding organisations which need it.

Nedbank's Green Trust was set up in 1990, in co-operation with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). We took it up, donating small amounts off our credit cards. and we still do. Well, at l...