Being an Akatu partner means believing in each person’s power to impact by his or her own consumer acts, the economy, social relations and nature.

In order to do this, it is necessary to create knowledge, develop information, establish methodologies and invest in people and structure compatible with this goal.

Many businesses believe in the conscious consumption proposal and are ready to contribute financially to the cause and to mobilize their communities on this issue.

As partners in this movement, these businesses themselves become good seeds for a better world. They contribute to developing the consumer’s consciousness for the power of the consumer act to transform society and, in this way, for the consumer to valorise the more socially and environmentally responsible companies.

Contribution, therefore, with Akatu is considered an action in the best interest of the most socially responsible businesses, which will be making more space for their participation in the market. 

Akatu believes that the participation of the companies is essential for extending the cause of conscious consumption, creating conditions for the consumer to have information and know the alternatives when buying, using and discarding goods and services; also making this act a gesture of positive transformation toward an economically prosperous, environmentally sustainable and socially just human society.

•    How is Akatu positioned with regard to the companies?

Akatu is maintained by companies that support development of and incentive for the cause of conscious consumption and that create conditions for the consumer to have more and better alternatives when choosing goods and services.

In this sense, Akatu is positioned as a source of content and tools for the companies to be able to meet and access consumers differentiated from the conscious consumption viewpoint.

Akatu acknowledges the support of the corporate partners in its portal, publications, talks and events, and publicises the actions of these companies regarding conscious consumption in the “Partners’ Actions” sections of the portal.

It should be mentioned that Akatu does not make choices for the consumer. This is why it does not have policies to induce consumers to buy goods or services from its corporate partners.

In the company-consumer relation, Akatu is aware of the need for a new major paradigm. For many years this relationship was based on the “movement to protect consumer rights”. This movement helped the company-consumer relationship gain enormous self-esteem to such an extent that for the first time consumers were able to practice their consumer power with regard to buying and using goods or services.  

On the other hand, this relation was centred on questions relating directly to goods or services, involving possible unfulfilled expectations regarding promises made by companies to the consumers, and the mechanisms to guarantee that the companies keep their promises.

The emergence of the movement of Corporate Social Responsibility challenges the consumer to look at the company not only as a producer of goods and services but also as a social agent, adopting a wide range of relations. So the consumer’s perception of the company is no longer concentrated on goods or services but now includes the quality of the company’s relations with employees, community, environment, consumers, suppliers, government, and society in general.

This change helps Akatu in its aim to make the consumer aware of the characteristics of this new relationship, where it is no longer possible for the consumer to expect perfection as used to occur with regard to goods or services. Concerning relations, expectations are defined reciprocally and there is always some room for imperfection deriving from possible different expectations.

On this matter, Akatu, on one hand, points to the importance of the company’s relationship and dialogue process with the different stakeholders; on the other, to the need for consumers to humanise their relation with the company, accepting the existence of rights and wrongs that, overall and not individually, will mark the principles and values in the company’s performance. These principles and values will lead to the consumer’s possible identification of these same beliefs, choosing to relate or not identify with the company, causing the consumer to no longer relate to the company or procure its goods or services.