Every now and then a major company in the United States commits an act of unqualified goodness. Recently, I walked into one of the Syracuse NY offices of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (located in East Syracuse) in order to return a car. While standing at the counter, I saw a fax coming through. The manager, whom I know very well, attended to the fax. In my usual retiring and shy way, I “badgered” him about attending to a fax rather than a loyal customer. The response was a most pleasant surprise. The manager handed me the fax.
No, the fax was not about me. Rather, it was about the pledge of Enterprise Rent-A-Car to plant 50 million trees over the next 50 years. What a marvelous humanitarian gesture on the part of a major U.S. company. There are not many time in my life when I can say that I am truly proud to be doing business with a company. But this was surely one of those instances.
I have been regularly renting from Enterprise Rent-A-Car for over 12 years. And they have always been wonderfully thoughtful and respectful and generous in their dealings with me. They have picked me up in order to rent a car; and they have dropped me off at my home or office when I have returned the car.
Nowadays, companies seem so driven by the goal of maximizing profits that customer loyalty often seems to not count for much of anything at all. But this has not been the case with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. It has been a privilege and an honor to do business with them. The goodwill that I have experience has manifested over several managers. So I know that it is more of a reflection upon the company than this or that particular individual. I have watched one employee after another exhibit grace under pressure.
But let me return to the company’s pledge of planting 50 million trees. If one goes to
http://www.arborday.org/enterprise/about/about_history.cfm
not only can one download for free a marvelous screensaver, more importantly: one can read about the pledge.
In a world in which just about everyone is concerned about getting more, there is something very lovely and magnificent about a major U.S. company doing something to replenish the earth.
As the sentence on page 2 reads:
A million trees a year is not a total solution, but it’s a step in the right direction
So very, very true. If every major company in the world should make just one step in the right direction, what a difference for the better that would make. Likewise, if every person were to make just one step in the right direction. What I particularly like is that Enterprise Rent-A-Car is taking this step of planting 50 million trees in a quite independent manner. The company is waiting for some other company or person to do the right thing. It is stepping up to the moral-environmental plate all on its own.
There is no better inspiration than that of a marvelous example. You want to inspire courage or honesty or kindness, then be courageous or honest or kind. For as the saying goes “Actions speak louder than words”. When a person’s actions match his noble words, then we have might be a called a form of manifest moral congruence in the person’s life. The person does not just express an ideal of excellence, but she or he is an exemplification of that ideal. And that is to give others something that is truly marvelous to witness. And this is why actions speak louder than words; for it is only with the appropriate actions that we witness the behavior in question which in turn occasions an imprimatur like nothing else can.
Now, perhaps there will be much fanfare and publicity about the matter. However, I am struck by the fact the project has been well under way in manner that is quite non-ostentatious. Indeed, it is quite by luck that I know about the matter. Had I returned the car 30 minutes earlier, I most certainly would not have known about it—at least not today. And I had returned it 30 minutes later, it is most unlikely that I would have, since the employees would have been already turned their attention to other things. But as so often the case with what is called moral luck, the timing was exquisite.
It would not be wrong for Enterprise Rent-A-Car to publicize their commitment to planting 1 million trees over the next 50 years. Not at all. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with there being a webpage informing individuals about this very wonderful project.
Just so, the manner in which things have been done tell us an awful lot about a person’s character. Even in public, I can give $50 to someone in need in a way that does not call attention to myself. Or, I can do so in a way that makes it clear that I want everyone to see that I did. It is only with the first that we kind of the virtuous act that is saintly and inspirational. With the second what we have is a manifestly self-serving piece of behavior.
When one goes to the site of Enterprise Rent-A-Car the project is very tastefully mentioned. There are no flashing icons or lights or whatever that draws one’s attention to the project. Clicking on the announcement of the project, takes one to a webpage hosted by The National Arbor Day Foundation where the project is discussed in great detail.
Did Enterprise Rent-A-Car engage in the project for no other reason than its publicity value? Or, did it do so because it wanted to do something that would be a step towards making the future a better place. All that I can say is that it very much looks as if the latter is the case. And that is very much to the company’s credit.
Oh how wonderful it would be if every company were virtuous in the way that Enterprise Rent-A-Car is. Perhaps all are; and I am simply not hearing about it. But I doubt it. What can I say, I have been in all sorts of stores and I have had all sorts of exposure to first one bit of information and then another. To date, no one has drawn my attention to such a thing being done by another company. We know that Bill Gates of Microsoft has been extremely magnanimous. He stands out in this regard. And that is just the point. In a like manner it would appear that Enterprise Rent-A-Car stands out.
John Stuart Mill wrote about the importance of approbation and disapprobation. This blog-entry is an exercise in moral approbation. In a world surfeited with acts of greed, I am exceedingly proud to be a customer of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I am truly delighted to bear witness to and to report this act of moral excellence on the part of the company. In the company’s own words:
A million trees a year is not a total solution, but it’s a step in the right direction
