Clients often ask me if I can replace the materials that they make their products from with a sustainable version.
Sure, if you replace the type of fuel you put in your car the next time you fill up!
While there is a lot of development going on to create new more sustainable materials - especially plastics, the reality is that most mass produced products today use petro-chemical based plastics. We cannot change this over-night. The petro chemical industry is about 50 years into it’s R&D cycle, while the biodegradable plastics industry is only about 10 years in. Give it another 10-15 years and we will have materials qualities that are comparable to todays plastics. So the time is coming to replace petro-chemical plastics but for now the opportunities are somewhat limited.
So what can you do? The first step would be to help you assess if there is a chance of using one of the newer developments to replace your materials with and if not, perhaps there is a different material that we could use if we redesign your product. This in itself can lead to new interesting solutions that could create a strong point of differentiation for you. Think here of the fast food industry and how they have moved from polystyrene to paper based wrapping. I would argue that the customer experience has in fact improved through this exercise in environmental improvement!
Toxicity is another issue that you can address more easily than materials replacement. Improvements in toxicity are a valid claim and help the environment. An analysis of your materials and materials suppliers will quickly highlight the areas that need addressing here.
The third area concerns the energy used in your product lifecycle or embedded energy. This concept takes into account the amount of energy used to create the product and includes all aspects from the creation of the materials to the manufacture and assembly of the product to the shipping and storage of the items until they reach the consumer. Finding opportunities to reduce the embedded energy ultimately mean opportunities to save cost in the product/manufacturing/distribution cycles.
Energy use doesn't stop at the point when the product is sold. Many products then go into active service where they consume energy over their useful life. Even the humble light bulb has an energy use that far exceeds the original purchase price of the product. Don't under-estimate the running costs and possible competitive advantages to be gained by redoing these! Think of what the compact fluorescent is doing to the traditional bulb market. Australia is even considering banning the tradional (energy sapping) bulb altogether!
The final aspect of energy use comes into being in the end of life strategy for the product. Creating materials from a virgin chemical state requires huge amounts of energy. Recycling and reusing materials is far more efficient and conserves natural resources. Rethinking the product lifecycle as Interface Carpets did is a surefire way to make huge savings. Interface effectively decided to lease rather than sell their carpets in order to recycle the carpets raw materials. End of life strategies to reuse and recycle components require the manufacturer to think through the disassembly options they can use. In Europe regulations are requiring certain industries to recycle their products and if you take the long term view of this, all industries should and probably will be required to over time. It is only by instituting such thinking that we will get our minds focused on conservation of resources and looking for the commercial opportunities that would exist in recycling products.
Possibly the biggest marketing opportunity lies in the upgrade option. Used cleverly this can lock a customer into a longer term relationship with you and at the same time provide an opportunity for providing an upgrade/refresh step at a much better margin. Most products are designed today for disposability, but what if we designed instead for longevity. Think of all the issues that you would need to change to achieve that instead and the possibilities for a continuous revenue stream from a customer base instead of having to find new customers every year as your new range comes out!
Finally we come to the really interesting part of Sustainability innovation where the magic can happen.
Breakthrough innovation.
Start by re-imagining how you can provide your benefit without a product. Could you deliver the benefit through a service? Could you reduce the amount of physical product? Could you employ the computer in a person’s home to do part of the function? Could you create a carbon neutral version of your product? Could you, as Toyota are doing, imagine and set in place a roadmap to replace the most harmful aspect of your product over time and in so doing set your company off on a path to differentiation and a market advantage that could put you in a dominating position?
Imagine you could and let us help you make it possible. Research has showed that more than two thirds of consumers would rather buy a product from a company that is doing good! Wouldn't it be nice to exceed the expectations of your consumers, improve the environment and become a stronger competitor? For more information go to http://www.mygreenbrand.com
Sustainability offers the chance to achieve all three.
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