Responsible Marketing Summary

Responsible Marketing

                

            Marketing definition is continuously changing by time, If we have a look 80 years ago, we can clearly say that definition cant able to fit tomorrow. There are few aspects of marketing currently, and responsible marketing becoming an important part of marketing every day. Responsible marketing is based on the idea that market offerings must not be only profit driven, but they must also reinforce social, environmental and ethical values for benefit of citizens and planet. I read in many sources that the people have proven more likely to support a company they perceive as being ethical and fair at all levels of their product life.

                

             In order to manage a responsible marketing campaign, responsible marketers should aware of the power of social media and internet. Internet can become a really dangerous place for big companies, If company deals with some kind of un-ethical action. Millions of people can spread words like lightening. There was a BP oil accident several years ago. Everyone in the world learnt the accident and their carelessness. So responsible marketers should honest and transparent about social causes. Another important advice is being aware of legal regulations. Some industries are dealing with financial and legal services, in order to avoid fines and consumer backlash, marketers in the firms should be careful about their actions.

                

          Recently,  most of the big company has social media accounts, I see, some of the companies are struggling to manage their social media accounts (facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). They are not interacting enough with their social audiences on platforms. This may lead consumer backlash. I personally think that, when I post some question or complain into companies page on facebook, I expect someone to interact with me soon but sometimes I am receiving that comment 25 days later. It is important to be involved quickly with audience at social level.

Final post

Responsible marketing considers Vc, Vf, Vp, Vs, Vn as a whole. It means when company decides to offer solution to a specific problem, the solution does not trade one value for another. New problem should not be caused when old one is solved.

To change current marketing situation, companies will have to be truly aware of the impact of their products. Although government can prescribe regulation so that companies are forced to be responsible, it is a solution only comes after problem happened. Many companies accept the idea of responsible marketing out of cost reduction consideration. It is reasonable in that companies' interest is subjected to shareholders' interest largely. If they want to change, probably they should start by choose investors carefully and make sure there is no interest conflict.

ClimateWise an initiative that is helping the Insurance Industry in UK to address climate risk.

The ClimateWise Principles were launched in September 2007 by HRH The Prince of Wales and a group of insurance industry members committed to follow six principles on managing climate risk.

1. Lead in risk analysis
2. Inform public policy making
3. Support climate awareness amongst our customers
4. Incorporate climate change into our investment strategies
5. Reduce the environmental impact of our business
6. Report and be accountable

As an initiative, ClimateWise is run on a not-for-profit basis by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and there are over 30 insurance companies and organisations in the UK signed up to the ClimateWise Principles. The ClimateWise report sets out innovative examples of risk management and investment practice that should become increasingly relevant indicators of progress and contribution towards a resilient low carbon economy.

Progress towards that contribution varies across members, but examples are emerging of new action among the members, for example:

• Informing customers of climate risk to enable them to protect themselves
• Incentivising the move towards sustainable behaviours through the claims process
• Moving capital towards sustainable businesses and assets through investment decisions
• Supporting innovative investment products such as green and flood defence infrastructure bonds.

Through its approach  ClimateWise initiative is supporting their members to further understand they role and the impact of their business.

http://www.climatewise.org.uk/independent-review/

How plastics in the ocean get into food chain

Every small to smaller particles are in this world are in the environmental chain. And how the plastics are coming back to us in our stomach through foods.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34428677

Two worthwhile documentaries

I admit this is somewhat off topic, but I feel the need to share these two documentaries with you. They have changed my perceptive on things and are highly relevant to the meat discussion I'm sure we will have tomorrow.

I'll link them in full, they are feature films 90 minutes a piece. They are really worthwhile to see. In short it covers the horrendous conditions under which super marker meat is produced (food inc) and the unspoken problem of emissions from the meat industry (cowspiracy). If you haven't seen them. They are worth the watch.

Sustainability Report - GLS Bank

The german GLS bank looks like the perfect bank, but I wanted to know more and had a look at their sustainability report. And I was very impressed - who needs annual report is you have GRI G4 standardized sustainability reports?! There is really everything in there... from cash flow statement to use of recycled material, from general strategy and analysis to energy and water use and so on. Even the ratio between the highest and lowest salary is published and critically reviewed.

There is, imho, no need for another report if a company has a sustainability report like the GLS bank - which means a GRI G4 standard report. Another big step in the right direction.

Better late than never - TerraCycle and the "new" cigarette butts

Hope it's still fine to post about TerraCycle :D

I think you have all heard about these things: K-Cups

It not only makes bad coffee, it also produces a hell lot of hard-to-recycle plastics. One of the "great inventions" of the 21st century...

Even though, Keurig announced to make these things recyclable by 2020, TerraCycle takes care of them now already. Not much more to say about than: Good job, TerraCycle! Thank you!

How Much Trust Can We Put on Sustainability Reporting?

Today, with the effort of improving transparency and accountability, many companies make it their business to include reports about their performance of their sustainability initiatives in their annual reports. However, Sustainability Reports have often been categorized as intangible and unable to be measured, the fact remains that they are having an increasingly significant effect on company’s value. It has provided good reputation for the company but some take advantage of it because of the variation across companies, countries and issue areas to be covered in the sustainability reports. So, it opens doors to omission of some issues and putting more stress on the ones that can help the company to green-wash its image.

I think that the absence of a standardized sustainability reporting format and strong regulating bodies (independent external auditors, NGOs and or government) it becomes harder to trust what is being reported and what is actually being done. Like the recent VW scandal which has helped investors and customers become more skeptical about sustainability reports.

According to its Sustainable Value Enhancement, VW group states:

 “We run the business responsibly and with a long term perspective along the entire value chain. Everyone should benefit from this-our customers, our employees, the environment and society.”

I wonder how much of this value has been affected by the false sustainability reporting. Will it be the end of VW’s image? How will they fix this problem? 

Sustainability Reporting Guidelines

Searching through internet it was quite overwhelming of the various sustainability reports and how are they all so different in contents. Finally I found that they are guidelines that companies can follow when putting together this report.

According to GRI a Sustainability reporting is the practice of measuring, disclosing, and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organisational performance towards the goal of sustainable development. For many companies a sustainability report provides a balanced and reasonable representation of the sustainability performance of an organisation – including both positive and negative contributions.

GRI provides a reporting framework of what companies need to include in their sustainability reports.
The GRI Reporting Framework is intended to serve as a generally accepted framework for reporting on an organisation’s economic, environmental, and social performance. It is designed for use by organisations of any size, sector, or location. It takes into account the practical considerations faced by a diverse range of organisations – from small enterprises to those with extensive and geographically dispersed operations

This framework is divided into two parts:
Part 1: Reporting principles and guidance
Part 2: Standard disclosures

For further info on GRI Reporting Framework:
https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/G3.1-Guidelines-Incl-Technical-Protocol.pdf

Nissan's Sustainability Report

I have given a look to Nissan's Sustainability Report. I found interesting that Nissan mentioned not only the environmental friendliness of its autos, but also regarding their operations in general (e.g. use of clean energy sources in their buildings). Furthermore, I found also interesting that Nissan does not only stress their commitment towards the environment, but also it mentions its support to philanthropic activities. This points out that Nissan wants to show that it is a sociable and environmental friendly company.

Regarding the information about its environmental contribution, I found noteworthy that they present several statistical data and results. However, Nissan never mentions in its report how the measurements were carried out or if any institution has certified them (especially the ones related with the environmental impact of its operations). In my opinion, Nissan shall include this information. Otherwise, some people might think that Nissan is using some kind of Green Washing method. By providing more accurate and complete information, Nissan can get a greener image and convince more people about the honesty of its efforts. 

Huawei Sustainability Report 2014

Water footprint is quite interesting point in Huawei's report. "Blue water" refers to ground/surface water that is consumed in operation and production. "Grey water" refers to the water that is polluted.
Huawei reports its program of collecting rainwater, reusing water, recycling reclaimed water.

For other parts of the report, the figure above shows up most frequently. Huawei highly focuses on energy-saving and GHG reduction.

Another point mentioned in the report is new bio-tech material, such as bioplastic that hurts environment less and soy ink that can be de-inked.

Huawei also claims reducing landfill rate to 2.37% which astounded me. But detailed operation or approach is not mentioned in the report.

value for ecosysytem of earth.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34540193
An independent study found that lab-grown beef uses 45% less energy than the average global representative figure for farming cattle. It also produces 96% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires 99% less land.

Terracycle Quits Worm Poop Business

Terracycle Quits Worm Poop Business, Merges with Miracle Gro

         Terracycle starts his journey with worm poops. They sold TerraCycle plant food successfully in the home depot and wall mart markets back in years but then company decided to take a radical shift in their business model. In 2009, company merged with Scotts Miracle-Gro for the production of Plant fertilizer and they quitted worm poop project, which is sad because Scotts Miracle-Gro is producing mostly synthetic line of plant food made from a petroleum based formulation.[1] Which is also sad that company still has the documentary and all those videos about worm poop production on YouTube. 

Please check the link for further information...

http://www.triplepundit.com/2009/04/terracycle-quits-worm-poop-business-merges-with-miracle-gro/

A update and great looking bags

Interested in seeing what happen after the case I founc this post, which seems to indicate that they continued on with corporate relationships. Im also very impressed by the bags... Id buy ut!

https://www.takepart.com/article/2015/11/02/green-business-recycles-un-recyclable

Brigada de Esponjas Scotch-Brite

Recycle your waste with Scotch-Brite

To leave the planet, even cleaner, Scotch-Brite joined TerraCycle in Brazil, to create a recycling of household cleaning sponge program. The program will provide a nobler destination for discarded sponges and the opportunity to raise money for those who participate in this collecting program. This program is really good because until now the normal destination for used sponges was to throw them in the garbage and, the best part is that they collect sponges from any brand.

The video shows how to participate in this collecting program.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MbRwc4pXK0

FROM ECO-REALITY TV SHOW TO INTERNSHIP PROGRAM AT TERRACYCLE

With the aim of changing consumer behavior or create greater awareness for how people manage waste, TerraCycle has played a big role. The company and its employees were featured as in a reality TV show called “Human Resources” which has aired for two seasons now. This TV show, unlike other reality TV shows, lets the viewers know that all wastes are either recyclable or reusable. It also recruits local university students and makes them compete among each other to work on specific recycling projects. This TV show was reported to have gained good reviews with audiences ranging from primary school student to adults.

To encourage the younger generation to improve waste management, TerraCycle also provides internship programs to youngsters. At TerraCycle, these youngsters get the opportunity to work on different cool projects for recycling and up cycling wastes. They get to participate in activities within the different departments according to their interests and develop the knowledge and skills that they would not have learnt at school.  

I believe that it is these kinds of initiatives that help create responsible citizens of tomorrow. The passion and dedication of Tom Szaky has inspired many people and provided greater hope that it is possible to find many other solutions in the near future.

http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/10/09/recycling-gets-real-season-finale-human-resources-season-2-finale-clip

TerraCycle: The Google of garbage?

I was stunned to see the innovations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA9Iw9OsJmo

Sustainability is happening thing in current world, day by day as reports are coming in, it is influencing the finances of several company. 

Terracycle in Oregon: Are they doing a good job regarding plastics?

I found the following note regarding Terracycle performance in Oregon:

http://koin.com/2015/09/21/terracycle-helps-ore-students-repurpose-waste/

According to this note, Terracylce is collecting several kinds of waste, plastics among them. Furthermore, the article describes that Terracycle is using those plastics to produce new products. Keeping this in mind, I am asking myself, as polymer chemist, if this is the best thing to do.

Each time that a plastic is recycled, it looses mechanical and chemical properties. Therefore, each time that a plastic is re-used, that plastic needs to be used in a product whose demands are lower than the previous product. The only way to avoid this is using a chemical recycling where the polymer is decomposed again into its building blocks or monomers and then undergoes chemical reactions to become again a polymer. By proceeding this way, the re-cycled material can keep its properties (the properties can be improved depending on the chemical process).

Based on what we have seen until now, it seems that Terracycle has not considered the possibility of using the chemical recycling methods for their close-loop supply chain. In my opinion, Terracycle shall start considering this in order to be more efficient regarding the re-use of plastic materials. In this way, Terracycle is not only decreasing the amount of waste, but also the consumption of raw materials, such as oil.

TerraCycle launches UK-wide cigarette recycling program

This is a new program to offer free recycling for cigarette butts and packaging.

This is a free scheme that has been offered to both groups and workplaces, as well as individuals over the age 18. Anyone who wants to participate in the recycling program simply needs to collect their cigarette or cigar butts and send it to TerraCycle. TerraCycle will accept anything from ash, used and unused cigarette filters, tolling paper, inner foil packaging and outer plastic packaging.
Much of the cigarette waste will be recycled into a range of plastic products, such as delivery pallets while and remaining tobacco or paper will be composted.

It will be interesting to see whether or not places such as pubs, restaurants, shopping centres, trains stations, airports, and individuals will actually participate in this scheme.

In my opinion this sounds like a good initiative, however how will the logistics of this scheme work, who will be collecting this waste or is it the responsibilities of the the groups, workplaces or individuals to drop off the waste at TerraCycles facilities?

For more information:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2428053/terracycle-launches-uk-wide-cigarette-recycling-program

Terracycle tutorial of recycling Halloween waste

Halloween is not popular in Chinese culture, but I know in other countries people decorate their houses with pumpkins and scary staff, treat kids with baskets of candy and people dress up in costumes which is used only once in a year. For valuable things, people might want to put them away and use them in the next Halloween. There are things, like candy wrappers, pumpkins and ragged costume that will end in trash bin.
Just in this Halloween, Terracycle posted an article to teach people recycle these waste. Some of its tips are doable. Like throwing unwanted costumes in donation bins, offering plastic/wooden pumpkins on Freecycle.org, reuse candy bucket for other purpose. Other tips, like composting pumpkins/hay, are not easy to implement. Terracycle also accepts candy wrappers that used to be unrecyclable.
In China, we really have the trash problem after many kinds of assemblies and festivals. Food package is the biggest portion of waste. There are trash bins for collecting waste but not sorted. Besides, waste is simply too much to be handled by limited number of bins. If people can be educated, or better instructed, to recycle, by volunteers or this kind of Terracycle tutorial articles, the waste problem should be handled better.


http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20151031/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/151039963/13937/LIFESTYLE

Ola, Nissan ink partnership for cab leasing programme

This news do not have any thing to do with sustainability.
But seems the direction as our Prof said is on the direction of product leasing and who owns the product will finally come to the producer.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Ola-Nissan-ink-partnership-for-cab-leasing-programme/articleshow/49649384.cms

Miyako Ecology Center CLICK FOR MAP

Muda - Mura - Muri

When companies are looking for ways to reduce waste, theye will eventually find the Toyota Production System (TPS) and the so called "7 wastes" (I think we all heard/read enough about that^^).

The three key elements of the TPS are Muda, Mura and Muri. A quick wikipedia research helps to understand these terms, if you are not fluent in japanese.

Muda (無駄) is a Japanese word meaning "futility; uselessness; idleness; superfluity; waste; wastage; wastefulness"


 Mura (斑) is a Japanese word meaning "unevenness; irregularity; lack of uniformity; nonuniformity; inequality"

 Muri (無理) is a Japanese word meaning "unreasonableness; impossible; beyond one's power; too difficult; by force; perforce; forcibly; compulsorily; excessiveness; immoderation"

Or, if you are more a picture-kind-of-person...

I think its not very difficult to understand these concepts if you take a little time to think about it. But it is in my opinion essential to know about them for all of us. Since we all studied in Japan, and all of us are "somehow" interested in making the world a little better, we should keep these concepts in mind when doing our future job, whatever it might be. This will not only help to increase the profitability of the company, but also to decrease the produced waste in many ways, which is a benefit for all actors in the value system.

Further readings & Sources:
http://deejaygraham.github.io/2014/11/24/muda-muri-mura-so-what/
http://leanmanufacturingtools.org/71/muda-mura-and-muri-lean-manufacturing-wastes/
http://www.shmula.com/about-peter-abilla/what-is-mura-muri-muda/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muri_%28Japanese_term%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mura_%28Japanese_term%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muda_%28Japanese_term%29

Volkswagen pushed into loss by emissions scandal

VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years

In the three months to the end of September, vehicle sales fell 3.7% and production fell 11.6% compared with the same period last year

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34650233

This is not just loss, I have another story to tell for next week how it is going to affect more 100000 people and around the world.

Regards

Nike Considered - a momentum that stopped?

I set out to research a bit into this and found something that excited me a lot, Nike's Considered. Good looking shoes and products, great story and a good cradle to cradle 
perceptive. 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/10/28/btscenes-us-nike-idUKTRE49R74W20081028

the article written in 2008 makes some massive claims, just look at this:
Nike, whose U.S. track and field uniforms during the recent Beijing Olympics were made from recycled Coca-Cola bottles, set a target to have all its shoes meet "Considered" standards by 2011, all clothing by 2015, and all equipment like balls, gloves and backpacks by 2020.

so now, 2015 both shoes and clothing should have the standard right? I try to search Nike.com but the latest report i found of this is from 2011. It then seems to have been abandoned. I can't help but ask why. 

Recycling Program - HP Planet Partners

HP makes example in cartridges recycling.



This video shows the Recycling Center in São Paulo, that has processed more than 1 million 200 thousand units of used ink cartridges. Part of this material turns to new cartridges, and the other parts of printers manufactured in the country. For this and other, HP in Brazil won the 1st place in Green Best Award for Sustainability, and the HP cartridge has been voted the most sustainable product of the country.









Find out more explanation about the global program here:  (https://h30248.www3.hp.com/recycle/ereturns/welcome-hpe.asp?__cc=gb&__la=en)

What Happens to the Old Mobile Phone Models?

I was always curious about the end of damaged and / or old model cell phones once people threw them away in the trash cans. I assumed they could be scrapped and their parts reused for maintenance purposes. Plus, with the fast evolution of technology, we are replacing old models at even faster rates. This also raised some more questions in my mind as to who should be responsible for the way they should be handled after the end of their useful lives.

After searching for some articles online, I stumbled onto two articles “Where Do Old Cellphones Go to Die” (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/ opinion/sunday/where-do-old-cellphones-go-to-die.html?_r=0) and “E-waste: Whose responsibility?” (https://itunews.itu.int/en/1940-E-waste-Whose-responsibility.note.aspx) helped me answer some of my own questions.

At the end of the day, it is evident that it is responsibility of all the stakeholders (i.e. government, customers, manufacturers...) to consider the impact of the product from birth till death.  However, the manufacturers must take a greater share of the responsibility and take appropriate measures as they control which materials and processes to be used. 

Shenmei beefs up Coca-Cola’s sustainability initiative

I saw this article and  seems to me it is complete green washing.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/consumer/Shenmei-beefs-up-CocaColas-sustainability-initiative/shdaily.shtml

Teijin Eco-Circle

In my opinion, one of the best examples of manufacturers who are taking the responsibility for their products along the whole product cycle is Teijin. Teijin is a polymer fiber manufacturer that has implemented the Eco-Circle close loop supply chain. Under the umbrella of this supply chain, Teijin chemically recycles PET products. Keeping this in mind, the recycled polymer has the same or higher quality than the original material. This characteristic is not common among the recycled polymers.

Teijin gets the material to be recycled from its customers. One very good example is Patagonia. Patagonia buys PET from Teijin to produce garments. Once these garments have ended its useful life, Patagonia collects them and send them back to Teijin for its recycling. In this way, the loop is closed and there is no necessity of consuming raw materials.

Further information about Teijin's Eco-circle program can be found under the following link:

http://www.teijin.com/solutions/ecocircle/
  

Puma: Future is leasing not selling products

According to Puma the future of sustainability for consumer goods brands isn't selling products, but leasing them through a new consumer model that uses loyalty initiatives to drive sustainable business.

Currently Puma already provides drop of points in the stores to encourage customer to return their shoes, this is their way of making customers more aware and involved in the product lifecycle. However they are hoping in the future they can lease shoes to their customers instead of selling them,,as this will allow them to be truly sustainable.

The idea of leasing seems to be more favourable to brands that want to be more sustainable, but this processes of leasing means that both the brand and customers need to be aware of the product design, manufacturing and product usage.

The idea of leasing seem to be focused around the idea of transparency between the brand and the customer.

For further reading on how leasing can be beneficial to a company here are a few links:
http://www.core-collective.org/puma-future-is-leasing-not-selling-products-marketing-week/
http://leasingworld.co.uk/userfiles/file/Leasing%20equals%20Sustainability%201.pdf