An Open Letter to Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Atlantic Management on Corporate Social Responsibility practices.

Re: Important: CSR/I'm Losing Faith in Your Brand

Dear Sir Richard,

I know how frustrating criticism can be from customers, so I want to start out with saying I am huge fan of you and your vast entrepreneurial endeavours. I also understand how remote you probably are from the day to day operating activities of Virgin Atlantic and that is why I have cced a number of your management team on this email.

I run a business that has offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Pune, India. As a result I fly Virgin Atlantic a lot. Over the past two years, I have had a number of bad experiences with Virgin but I am a pretty easy going guy so I let them go. This included being stranded at the Mumbai airport when our confirmation on Jet Airways through Virgin ticketing was not found. This cost me $3k in a new ticket for me and my colleague and relentless hounding of the Better Business Bureau to get you to reimburse me, which took a year. $3k was a lot two years ago to a startup technology company trying to change the world, but I'm over it. I'm over the number of other inconveniences you have caused me over the past two years as well; I don't want to waste your time with the small issues.

I just started flying premium economy with you as my company is starting to do well. I was on a plane back on Sunday after returning from a conference we put on with the Financial Times on Social Innovation in business. I was drinking one of your coffees which advertised that it was Fairtrade Certified, nice work! I was then served what some cynical people will call breakfast, a Jimmy Dean Ham, Egg and Cheese. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and let me tell you why:

You see, Sir Richard, you and I are both ridiculous hypocrites. At the beginning and end of every flight you claim to want to become the most sustainable airline in the world. Airline flying, as I am sure you know (in addition to eating meat) is the most unsustainable thing you can do. Yet, I fly around the world to Mumbai, to San Francisco, London, and New York to run my business because I believe in "the multiplier effect". I believe that if I can change business through Justmeans then the standard per person carbon accounting does not apply to me. Let's call it the Al Gore complex.

Sir Rirchard, I also continue to fly because I believe you are going to figure out the big sustainability challenges, namely algae based biofuels that make airline travel more sustainable. Now, you may say, go ahead and offset your carbon emissions, but you and I know, Sir Richard, just how "cloudy" the current VER and even CER programs are in the carbon market.

So my entire lifestyle is predicated on the belief that you are going to make airline travel more sustainable. So, when you mess up on something so small as serving me a product that exemplifies the unsustainability of have a dozen industries (vertically integrated agriculture, pharmaceuticals, trucking, oil & gas) as the Jimmy Dean Ham, Egg & Cheese does, it undermines that entire believe. If you can't get the simple things right, how are you going to figure out sustainable biofuels, unless it's just a bunch of marketing spin, which is honestly what I now believe.

You have a great opportunity to change the entire way the airline industry does business. When I was writing down the ingredients in the Jimmy Dean "sandwiched" (listed here), one of your cabin crew members came up to ask me what I was doing. When I explained why this simple product undermined your entire brand identity and sustainability initiatives, she was fascinated. The cabin crew began looking at everything you serve, all the way to the lotion you use in the bathrooms. If you give your employees and customers the opportunity to create change with you, it will not only inspire them but it will actualize the sustainable airline you currently market yourself as.

Now I know how hard supplier agreements are. I am not even sure that you have the ability to influence GateGourmet by asking for more healthy and sustainable food for your packages. But, at the same time I am sure thousands of people told you when you were working on Portabello Road all the reasons why you would never be successful. If you change airline food on Virgin Atlantic, you change it for the industry. If you get your customers thinking about the sustainability behind every Virgin Atlantic choice, you build yourself an invincible brand.

For better or worse, Sir Richard, I am your future. Currently, your clientele is willing to pay a little more for your services both because most of the time you offer a better service and because of your brand identity. However, my generation also cares enormously about issues of sustainability and are confronted daily with the hypocrisies of ethical consumption and a western lifestyle. If you lose me, you lose my generation.

I love your airline and the thought of flying American makes me sick. However, unless I see a rapid and farsweeping change from you and your senior management team, I will not only stop flying your airline but I will do everything in my power to call to attention the hypocrisies of your company.

Enlist me, your customers and your employees to help you figure out the small issues. That way, we can all believe that you will figure out the big ones.

Sincerely,

Martin Smith
CEO and Founder
Justmeans

This letter was sent to the entire Virgin Atlantic management team and over 1000 journalists at 4pm GMT on Wednedsay March 31st, 2010.