Capitalism has done wonders for creating value and lifting people up from poverty, yet big business has a bad public image, Whole Foods Market co-CEO John Mackey said.

He said business in general is judged by its worst practitioners, resulting in calls for greater regulation, which may lead to the stifling of economic freedom in the United States.

Business will continue to have this image problem until it can change the narrative about its mission and intentions and operate "consciously," he continued.

"Business is good because it creates value for everyone who chooses to trade with it," he said.

Mackey shared his thoughts on how to do this in "Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business," a panel held during SXSW Interactive on March 10. Mackey's panel shares its title with a book he wrote and published in 2013.

Mackey co-founded Whole Foods Market in Austin in 1978. It has since grown to more than 340 supermarkets worldwide, according to the company's website.

In his speech, Mackey called on businesses to have a higher purpose than making money.

"My body makes red blood cells. Without them, I'm a dead man. But the purpose of my life is not to make red blood cells," he said.

He cited the missions of several successful businesses, including Google, REI, Southwest Airlines and Whole Foods Market. He said businesses will never be trusted if they emphasize their profits over their higher purpose.

Mackey said conscious capitalism calls for business leaders who are spiritually awake, have a strong emotional intelligence and adopt a servant leader mentality, prizing empathy and stewardship.

He suggested an acronym of advice for companies to move toward conscious capitalism, TACTILE—Trust, Authentic, Caring, Transparent, Integrity, Loyalty and Egalitarian practices.

Mackey said he wrote his book for the millennial generation, those born in the 1980s and 1990s.

"They already have much higher consciousness than my generation [baby boomers] had at their age," he said.

Individual investors respond to higher purpose and financial success, he said. Wall Street in general will be "the last domino to fall" in any transition to widespread conscious capitalism, he added.