4

Designing greener products
A life-cycle approach

It used to be that consumers simply expected the products they bought to work well, sport a familiar brand name, be sold in a nearby store, and be affordably priced. The rules have changed. Today, that once seemingly short checklist includes minimizing the environmental impacts of those products at every phase of their life-cycle, starting with the impacts associated with mining, growing, or otherwise processing the raw materials right through to the impacts linked to a product’s eventual disposal. And now, throw in for good measure a number of social considerations such as fair working conditions and whether or not laborers receive a living wage (even perhaps in some equitable proportion to the salaries of the highest-paid managers), use of child labor, whether prices paid to producers are deemed fair (can coffee growers afford to send their children to school?), and whether the manufacturer is a good member of the community. This presents to businesses looking to develop highly marketable and legitimately sustainable brands the need to juggle traditional product considerations with an extremely varied and highly complex list of issues involving the entire supply chain.

These issues also include the harnessing and consumption of natural resources such as water and energy, as well as the protection of natural habitats and endangered species. It is generally not the brand manager’s job to be responsible for a product’s environmental and social impacts. However, given that they sit on cross-functional teams, and their consumers are increasingly favoring brands based on their track records for managing these issues, this chapter is included as a primer on green product design. Its relevance to marketers is illustrated with numerous examples of how green product benefits can be associated with business success; in successive chapters we will deal with the strategies for communicating these various benefits with credibility and impact.

Consider the entire life-cycle

Designing products and packaging for minimal impact can be tricky. What may appear to be an ecological benefit may actually result in little or no added environmental value. Some plastic plates made from cornstarch, for example, may decompose in a municipal composting facility but not in backyard composters, where conditions are not likely to be so hot and steamy. Hybrid cars save energy but the batteries they contain represent a potentially significant source of hazardous waste.

Sometimes the presumed greening of a product can actually increase overall environmental impact. CPC, the makers of Mueller’s pasta, found that converting to recycled carton material would actually add about 20% to the width of their package material and this would at least partially offset savings to the environment, considering the extra energy needed to ship the new boxes. Because of the energy it takes to transport recyclables to a processing facility, it may be that a product with a very high degree of recycled content may represent greater impact than one with less recycled content.

It can even be argued that there is no such thing as a truly “green” product, because every product, no matter how thoughtfully designed, uses resources and creates waste. Therefore, “green” is a relative term, with some products being greener for certain reasons or in certain circumstances (and hence my preference for the term “greener products” throughout this book).

So, in order to address consumers’ various sustainability-related product concerns discussed in Chapter 2, and to prevent backlash from consumers, environmental groups, and other stakeholders, all of whom may be quick to point out the shortcomings of products and packaging touted as green, a thorough approach to improving the environmental profile of one’s products/services and processes is required. A tool called life-cycle assessment (LCA) can help by examining all the environmental issues involved in designing a greener product:

The first step in conducting a full life-cycle analysis of a product is to define the functional unit and the product system. For instance, in conducting an LCA of a toothbrush, you need to decide whether to analyze just the toothbrush, or include the package, too. What about the water and toothpaste used throughout the life of the toothbrush? Conducting an LCA also requires you to set boundaries on the data to be collected for analysis; for instance, should you consider the environmental impacts associated with making the trucks needed to transport the toothbrushes to stores? Likely not! But factoring in the energy used in transportation would be totally appropriate.

Your study may encompass the product’s complete life-cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal (“cradle-to-grave” analysis), or it may be limited to the processes from raw materials extraction to product production (“cradle-to-gate” analysis). Ideally, it would look at the impacts associated with a “cradle-to-cradle” point of view,¹ and take into account various options for recycling or otherwise responsibly turning your product into useful new material or energy.

Your study may take into account the materials, energy, and emissions to produce a kilogram of product, or to produce enough product for 1,000 uses.

Once the boundaries and assumptions are determined, quantify the use of energy, resources, and emissions associated with raw-material procurement, manufacturing and production, packaging, distribution, and in-use (e.g., use of energy, water, or other consumables) straight through to after-use (e.g., recycling and recovery) or final disposal. Then, analyze the data, identify problems and opportunities, and allocate the resources to address them in priority.

An LCA of a washing machine, for example, would quantify the environmental impacts associated with fabricating the metal, along with pollutants and energy from the mining process (which can be significant). It would consider the energy needed to manufacture the machines and transport them to stores. Then it would factor in the water, energy, and detergent needed to run the washer over an estimated lifetime (likely measured in years), making assumptions regarding such things as number of washings per week, water temperatures, and size of loads. Finally, it would consider the impacts associated with collecting and recycling the machines, and/or eventual disposal in a landfill or incinerator.

LCAs can help assess particular impacts: for instance, energy, which is often a key component in all products. The Procter & Gamble Company has conducted life-cycle assessments of many of their company’s products. Some of their results through 2006 are summarized in Figure 4.1. As can be seen, areas of greatest energy usage vary greatly by life-cycle stage and product category. An LCA of a laundry detergent, for instance, shows that the greatest energy impacts by far occur during the usage stage, considering all the energy needed to heat the water. It was this type of assessment that spurred P&G to introduce Tide Coldwater (discussed in Chapter 6), a product that P&G estimates could help to save the equivalent of 3% of total U.S. energy consumption, and over 8% of the CO₂ reduction target for the U.S. set in the Kyoto Protocol.²

Figure 4.1 Product energy usage from a life-cycle perspective

Reprinted with permission of Procter & Gamble Company

Energy’s contribution to so many products during use represents a key reason why the U.S. government has devoted so much attention to the ENERGY STAR label (discussed in more detail in Chapter 7). It was an LCA, too, that prompted the move by makers of soft drinks in the 1970s to save energy by shifting from returnable glass bottles that required two-way transport by grocers to one-way disposable PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

LCA is a valuable tool for addressing the new rules of green marketing, as it can be very useful for:

• Comparing the costs associated with energy and resource usage and environmental emissions associated with existing product designs, manufacturing and packaging methods and their alternatives

• Identifying significant areas for reducing energy use, water use, and waste

• Comparing energy and resource usage and environmental emissions associated with competitive products, i.e., as the basis for manufacturing claims.

Many organizations around the world have performed LCAs in industries ranging from automotive, paper, paperboard, glass, steel, lighting, energy, aluminum, plastic beverage containers, and delivery systems to building materials and transportation products. Many different methodologies have evolved, both quantitative and qualitative; some allow businesses to conduct their own LCAs with the aid of sophisticated software tools such as SimaPro, GaBi, and Umberto programmed with estimates of the environmental impacts for various materials and processes.

Use caution when attempting to use life-cycle assessment as a marketing tool! The transparency afforded by LCA is highly desirable but challenges abound. For instance, it’s one thing to report to consumers the results of an LCA conducted on one’s own product, as Timberland does with its Green Index (see Chapter 9), but comparisons with competitors’ products can be tricky. Comparisons that favor a study sponsor can easily be criticized – and held suspect. Besides, it is not easy obtaining accurate data on competitors’ products!

Moreover, try comparing the environmental impacts of two different concepts that meet the same consumer need. Take diapers as an example. What’s more important to society: landfill space or water and energy associated with laundering cloth? Also tricky – LCAs of two products based on the same technology can yield very dissimilar results, making comparisons for marketing purposes unfair. For instance, two competitive products might have been made in different countries (or even different states or provinces) with different types of energy, each with their respective pollutants. For instance, an LCA of a washing machine conducted in the U.S. may likely be based on coal, the predominant type of energy used in the U.S., whereas in France it may be nuclear. Consumers, at least for now, are not knowledgeable enough about LCA to ask the right questions when presented with comparative results.

Experts in industry, government, and academia are working to legitimize the use of LCA and other approaches as marketing tools. The EPA has created an online resource called LCAccess, designed to “promote the use of LCA to make more informed decisions through a better understanding of the human health and environmental impacts of products, processes, and activities.”³ Businesses looking to use LCA data to more easily compare competitors and alternatives may want to consider a standardized system of analysis such as the economic input-output LCA software developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Green Design Initiative and available on the web (www.eiolca.net).

Among its shortcomings, LCA does not adequately address certain environmental and social concerns. According to Martin Wolf, Director of Product and Environmental Technology, Seventh Generation, an expert on life-cycle inventory and green product development, an LCA must be augmented with a holistic evaluation of a product’s total environmental and social impacts. Renewable or sustainable resource use, habitat destruction, biodiversity depletion, odors, visual pollution, noise pollution, toxicity, bio-degradability, and social issues such as fair trade, labor practices, and community responsibility of import to environmentalists, consumers, and others in society cannot be evaluated by the quantitative approach of LCA and must be considered separately.

Representing a new development in product LCA, carbon footprint-ing has emerged as an alternative to LCA. Given the fact that LCAs can be extremely complex, and that energy can represent a good proxy for an LCA given that so much of any product’s life-cycle impacts are energy-related, calculating the carbon footprint of a product, rather than conducting a full LCA, is becoming popular. Similar to conducting an LCA, one would determine a product’s carbon footprint by calculating the amount of energy consumed at each stage of the product life-cycle, then converting it into the amount of emissions associated with each stage, before arriving at a total carbon footprint.

One product that is watching its carbon footprint these days is Pep-siCo’s Walkers Crisps, a brand of potato chip sold in the UK. Since 2007, the Walkers package has sported a Carbon Reduction Label developed by the Carbon Trust (see Chapter 7 for more detail). Pepsi worked with the UK-based not-for-profit to develop the carbon footprint of Walkers Crisps – and learned a lot in the process. From 2007 to 2009, PepsiCo has been able to reduce the carbon footprint of Walkers Crisps by 7%, saving about 4,800 tons of emissions. This has paid off at the point of sale, with about 52% of those polled in the UK saying they were more likely to buy a product carrying the Carbon Reduction Label. Pepsi has since put the label on UK-based packages of Quaker Oats, as well as Oatso Simple Original and Oatso Simple Golden Syrup.⁴

Strategies for sustainable product design

Many marketers now grow their businesses and attempt to minimize their environmental and health-related risks by addressing the specific environmental and social issues most relevant to their consumers and other stakeholders. Proactive green marketers keep an eye on the future with a phased plan for managing potential risks 5–15 years hence. In the process, they often save money and enhance brand image while ensuring future sales for existing and new products. A plethora of strategies, ideally considered as part of a holistic effort to manage one’s brand rather than incorporated in isolation, exist to inspire profitable new and improved products and packages that address the new rules of balancing consumers’ needs with sustainability considerations. These are examined below.

1 Sustainable harvesting and mining practices

Sustainability has established itself as a buzzword in the business world, but it has become particularly important for manufacturers whose supplies of raw material are threatened. What is abundant today may become scarce tomorrow, wreaking havoc for manufacturers whose designs are dependent on specific types of raw materials. Herman Miller’s Eames lounge chair and ottoman, the design icon introduced in 1956, originally featured Brazilian rosewood which is now endangered; however, taking great care to protect its authentic design sensibility, since 1991 Herman Miller has produced the chair with cherry and walnut wood from sustainably managed forests.

C.F. Martin & Company
With supplies of rosewood, spruce, and mahogany all scarcer in recent years due to unsustainable logging practices, Christian F. Martin IV is the first generation of Nazareth, Pennsylvania-based guitar makers C.F. Martin & Company, to worry that his family company’s supply of wood would soon become exhausted. With an eye on the future, in 2007 Martin teamed up with three other leading U.S. producers of guitars and Greenpeace to form the Music Wood Coalition to promote better logging practices in the areas where these rare woods are grown. One thing the coalition learned was that the last old-growth Sitka spruce tree from a temperate rainforest in Alaska, which had been an important source of wood for the guitar industry, would be harvested within the decade. So, C.F. Martin led the industry in the use of more plentiful, alternative woods such as birch and cherry.⁵

Tiffany & Company

Blood diamonds, meet dirty gold. Gold mining can wreak havoc with water supplies, violate human rights and decimate an area’s natural surroundings. Production of just one gold ring can generate 20 tons of waste.⁶

Tiffany & Co., the legendary jewelers, recognized the issue of dirty gold early on and took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post asking the Federal Government to halt construction of a controversial silver mine that threatened Montana’s Cabinet Mountains Wilderness and called for important mining reforms.⁷ The first jeweler to respond to NGO Earthworks’ call for responsible mining, Tiffany embraced the DC-based environmental group’s No Dirty Gold campaign calling for jewelers to pledge to work only with those mining companies that adhered to Earthworks’ high standards of social and environmental responsibility.⁸

By taking an early definitive stance against destructive mining, Tiffany has defended its sterling reputation and protected market share among its discriminating customers. Michael J. Kowalski, Tiffany’s chairman and CEO, says it best in Tiffany & Co.’s sustainability report: “Tiffany & Co. is committed to obtaining precious metals and gemstones and crafting our jewelry in ways that are socially and environmentally responsible. It is simply the right thing to do: Our customers expect and deserve nothing less.”⁹

2 Recycled content

Recycling is the most popular eco-design strategy, and for good reasons. It can save the energy needed to mine, ship, and produce new materials, in turn preventing the air pollution associated with the generation of new energy. For instance, creating aluminum cans from recycled content uses 95% less energy than constructing new ones from virgin material. Some materials, such as glass and aluminum, can be recycled in a theoretically endless loop while most plastics and paper are simply “downcycled” into less valuable uses. Recycling also spares valuable materials from ending up in a landfill and prevents toxins from leaching into underground water. Along with these environmental benefits, recycling can save businesses money, so it is great for the bottom line, too. And, of course, it’s relatively easy for consumers to pitch in.

HP inkjet cartridges
Materials such as newspapers, packaging, magazines, books, clothes, and toys – what we all throw away every day – are considered “post-consumer waste.” This includes the 700 million inkjet and toner printer cartridges that are used yearly across the U.S.¹⁰ Uncomfortable with these numbers (which represent future risk), Hewlett-Packard now makes more than 200 million of its inkjet cartridges with post-consumer plastics. Their process combines various kinds of recycled plastics, from used inkjet cartridges to common water bottles, with a variety of chemical additives. HP used 12 million pounds of recycled plastic in 2008, more than double what it used the previous year.¹¹ Helping consumers to close the loop, HP includes a pre-paid return envelope in its packages; they have also arranged for consumers to take used cartridges to recycling centers and many office supply stores such as Staples, Office Depot, and OfficeMax.

Recycline

Recycline Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts, founded in 1996, manufactures the Preserve brand of toothbrushes, razors, tongue cleaners, and tableware made exclusively from recycled feedstocks. The Preserve toothbrush, Recy-cline’s premier product, is made of 100% recycled polypropylene plastic, the majority of which comes from Stonyfield Farm’s yogurt containers as well as old or broken grocery store carts and toys.

Until 2007, Recycline’s products were sold principally at specialty green-type stores, but with mainstream consumers ready for a recycling step forward, Recycline’s Preserve toothbrushes are now sold by Wal-Mart and on Amazon.com, as well as by their primary retailer, Whole Foods Market. In 2007, Recycline won Forbes.com’s Boost Your Business contest over nearly 1,000 other small businesses from around the country.¹²

3 Source reduce

Recycling has much to recommend it ecologically, but does have its drawbacks. It still takes energy to transport the recyclables to a processing facility, topped off by the energy used to recycle those materials. Sometimes such factors weigh against recycling. While recycling is most often preferable to landfilling, source reduction and reuse of products usually have less environmental impact than recycling – hence the mantra “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.” In assessing the feasibility of recycling polystyrene clamshells, for example, McDonald’s found that the amount of energy needed to transport the super-lightweight yet bulky materials (requiring multiple trucks) made the operation infeasible. They decided against recycling in favor of very thin “quilt wraps” – a form of source reduction – which were landfilled after one use.

Source reduction, a strategy most often associated with packaging, was originally referenced in the U.S. Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 with a statement that “pollution should be prevented or reduced at its source whenever feasible.” Since the cost savings derived from source reduction are often parallel to the amount of materials eliminated, the tenets of this law are not only good for the environment, they are good for business.

Dropps dissolvable laundry capsules

Many large corporations are seizing opportunities to source reduce, prodded by a Wal-Mart pledge to skim 5% of all packaging from its supply chain by 2013, along with nearly 700,000 metric tons of carbon emissions and $3.4 billion. Accordingly, Wal-Mart is giving preferential shelf treatment to such innovations as Sun Products’ “All small & mighty,” a detergent that is three times more concentrated than traditional All. The environmental benefits? Smaller bottles requiring less plastic to produce, fewer boxes to ship, less water – and less weight for the same number of loads – as well as fewer trucks to ship them. Such benefits are desirable in and of themselves, but Dropps, a Philadelphia-based start-up, has an even better idea.

Instead of a bulky plastic container, the folks at Dropps have decided to sell their laundry detergent packed inside dissolvable one-inch square capsules dubbed “Dropps,” packed 20 in a stand-up pouch. According to the company, the collapsible plastic pouches are so thin, it would take 292 of them to equal the plastic represented by one empty jug of All. Representing pre-measured portions of six-times concentrated detergent, tossed into the wash, they leave behind nothing but clean clothes. In addition, the super-concentrated formula means that there is very little water being shipped with the detergent, reducing transportation costs and maximizing the retailer’s shelf space efficiency. Beyond its own formula for super source reduction, Dropps’ low-suds formula is free of chlorine, NPE (nonylphenol ethoxylate – a stain-fighting additive found to be an endocrine disruptor¹³) and phosphate. A sure-to-be-rising star of the concentrated detergents market, Dropps can now be found on the shelves of Publix, Safeway, and Target stores.

4 Organically grown

Since the deadly effects of DDT were first publicized in Rachel Carson’s 1962 watershed book Silent Spring, society has fretted about the potential health threats of using pesticides and fertilizers in crops. So started the organic foods movement over 40 years ago. Today, organic is everywhere. Hershey makes organic chocolate. The Gap produces organic clothing. Even Target, Wal-Mart, and 7-Eleven stock a huge range of organic foods, cleaning products, and make-up. Free of artificial preservatives, coloring, irradiation, pesticides, fungicides, and hormones, organic products chalked up $24.6 billion in consumer purchases in the U.S. in 2008, an increase of 17.1% over 2007.¹⁴ The organic movement even has its own government seal. (To learn about the USDA Organic seal, see Chapter 7.)

Safeway’s O organics line
Safeway’s USDA-certified “O” brand line, with 300 organic products in more than 30 categories, and thus appealing to a wide array of consumers, has enjoyed such success that the products are now carried by other food chains. In addition to milk, bread, and other staples, the line consists of frozen dinners, snacks such as popcorn and chips, and even ice cream bars. The line is especially targeted at new mothers seeking to provide their children with healthier food without spending much more. With prices comparable to conventional alternatives, James White, president of Safeway’s Lucerne Foods division, says the brand is “making organics available to everyone,” and with the spread of the line into other supermarkets, this may soon be true. In its first year, 2005, the line brought in $150 million, sales doubled to $300 million in 2007,¹⁵ and were projected to be $400 million for 2008.¹⁶

Earth’s Best organic baby food
New mothers are especially concerned about how synthetic pesticides can affect the development of young children. One company offering an alternative to conventional baby foods is Earth’s Best, an organic baby food launched in 1985 and now in the hands of Hain Celestial Group, the largest manufacturer of natural food products with brands that are increasingly being embraced by mainstream consumers such as Celestial Seasonings Tea, Arrowhead Mills, Health Valley, and Terra Chips, Earth’s Best is USDA-certified organic and delivers flavorful taste without any preservatives, salt, refined sugar, or modified starches.

With a product line-up including jarred food, cookies, frozen meals, cereal, and body care, sales in 2006 were up almost 50% from the previous year.¹⁷ According to Philip Tasho, manager of the Aston/TAMO Small Cap Fund that owns Hain shares, “The natural and organic food industry is broadening and becoming more mainstream. Overall consumer spending may decline, but consumers aren’t going to scrimp on products for their health.”¹⁸

Nike Organics

Although 100% cotton may suggest 100% natural or 100% organic, both are far from true. For starters, producing 2.5 pounds of cotton takes anywhere from 2,000 to 8,000 gallons of water.¹⁹ Cotton also requires the extensive use of herbicides and pesticides – more than any single crop. And if that’s not enough, cotton crops are sprayed with a chemical defoliant to prevent leaf staining, and the resulting fiber is saturated with bleach or dyed with any number of potentially toxic chemicals.

All of this impact is not lost on Nike, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cotton clothing. To address this issue, Nike has become the world’s largest buyer of organic cotton and, in 2005, they launched Nike Organics, a full line of clothing made from 100% organic cotton in the spirit that “one shouldn’t have to decide between style and nature.” The USDA certifies Nike’s cotton as organic, documenting the process all the way from the farm to the finished garment. Nike’s commitment stretches further than this one line: 9% of all the cotton they used in 2007 was organic – no small amount at 11 million pounds²⁰ – and the company aims to blend 5% organic cotton in all of its cotton garments by 2010.²¹ Nike is not alone in playing by different cotton rules. According to the Organic Exchange, a trade organization, global organic cotton sales rose from $245 million in 2001 to $4.3 billion in 2009. Riding a 40% average annual growth rate since 2001, projections for 2010 are close to $5.1 billion.²²

5 Fair trade

The rules of the game are fast changing when it comes to labor practices and resulting in favorable impacts on worker wages and living standards, and none too soon. According to UNICEF, one-sixth of the world’s children aged 5–14, 158 million in all, are engaged in child labor, vulnerable to exploitation and the poverty that accompanies a lack of education.²³ Such conditions can persist throughout a lifetime, especially for women, who account for 70% of the more than one billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide.²⁴

Several certification programs run at the national/regional levels by groups such as Oakland, California-based TransFair USA and the UK-based Fairtrade Foundation have sprung up to address the issue. Progress is being made. According to the World Trade Organization, over 7.5 million disad-vantaged producers and their families are estimated to benefit from fair-trade-funded infrastructure and community development projects.²⁵ In 2008, worldwide sales of fair trade products such as coffee, cocoa, tea, herbs, spices, fruit, and sugar skyrocketed to over $4 billion, an increase of 22% over 2007.²⁶ One of the top volume sellers of Fair Trade Certified coffee in the U.S. is Starbucks, whose Café Estima brand helps to create a positive impact on the lives of farmers in Latin America and Africa.

Divine Chocolate Limited

“Heavenly Chocolate with a Heart” is the slogan of Divine Chocolate Limited, a fair trade chocolate manufacturer that is owned (45%) by the members of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in Ghana, who not only receive fair trade prices for their cocoa but also sit on the board of directors and share in the profits.²⁷

Launched in the UK in 1998, Divine Chocolate is now available in many U.S. grocery stores including Wegmans, Fairway, and Whole Foods in addition to specialty chocolate stores throughout the country. Representing U.S. sales of $2 million in 2008, Divine Chocolate has won accolades for its socially conscious practices, winning the Social Enterprise Coalition (the UK’s national body for social enterprise) award for Best Social Enterprise in 2007 and UK Observer newspaper’s Best Ethical Business award in 2008, as well as Good Housekeeping’s Favorite Fair Trade Product in 2008.²⁸

Following the example of committed companies such as Divine, chocolate industry leaders are beginning to follow new rules themselves. UK-based Cadbury, one of the world’s largest confectioners (now owned by U.S. conglomerate Kraft), purchased the organic chocolate company Green & Black’s in 2005 and launched its own fair trade product in July 2009 as the new Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate – a commitment that translates to tripling the amount of fair trade cocoa bought from Ghana. Not to be left behind, a month after Cadbury’s announcement, competitor Mars Inc. publicized its goal to produce candy from only sustainable sources by 2020.²⁹

Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade Certified Chunks and Swirls

Since 1978, Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont-based wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever known for its super-premium ice cream, has been operating its business on a three-part mission which emphasizes product quality, economic reward, and a responsibility to the community. In 2010, Fair Trade Certified ingredients became part of that mission, when the company announced its decision to go fully Fair Trade across its entire global flavor portfolio by the end of 2013.

Ben & Jerry’s Fair Trade commitment, the first in its industry, means that every ingredient in its ice creams and confections that can be sourced Fair Trade Certified, now or in the future, is Fair Trade Certified. Globally, this involves working across diverse ingredients such as cocoa, banana, vanilla, and other flavorings, fruits, and nuts. It also means coordinating with Fair Trade cooperatives representing a combined membership of over 27,000 farmers.

Rob Cameron, Chief Executive of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, believes Fair Trade Certified is consistent with the Ben & Jerry’s brand. In his words, “Ben & Jerry’s, like all of us in the Fair Trade movement, believe that people can have fun standing up to injustice and campaigning against poverty while enjoying some of Ben & Jerry’s best-selling favorites like Phish Food and Chocolate Fudge Brownie, how cool is that.”³⁰

Clarins beauty products

Taking an alternative approach to fair trade certification, Clarins, the France-based manufacturer of upscale skin care, make-up and perfumes, opts to rigorously screen their suppliers of precious botanical ingredients themselves, and commit to fair trade agreements and hands-on community development projects in indigenous communities. ³¹

In Madagascar, Clarins supports over 2,500 families by offering agricultural jobs for harvesters. Additionally, Clarins reinvests 5% of all of its profit from a harvest back into local community projects.³² For example, they helped to install an infrastructure system to supply a village in Marovay with clean drinking water and renovated a village school. Clarins also pledged to replant 10,000 native Katafray trees, and to teach local farmers how to remove the bark used in their products, sustainably.³³

In Vietnam, Clarins has set up fair trade agreements to purchase Vu Sua, a fruit used for Clarins firming lotions, which is the main source of revenue for the village of Vin Kim.³⁴ Clarins also helped to finance and remodel one of the area’s schools.

To help promote further socially responsible projects and protect the sources of its brand-distinguishing botanicals, Clarins recognizes outstanding individuals with company-sponsored service awards, such as the Dynamic Woman Award³⁵ started in 1997, and the ClarinsMen Environment Award, first given to Jean-Pierre Nicolas, an ethnopharmacologist, in 2004 for his organization Jardins du Monde, which brings alternative medicine to communities where conventional medicine is unavailable or too expensive.³⁶

6 Reduce toxicity

Toxicity affects products at every stage of their life-cycle: for example, chemical spills on highways, fires and lethal toxin leaks at chemical plants such as the one in Bhopal, India, in 1984, and such issues as asbestos risks to workers and arsenic-laden mine tailings. Phthalates, a compound used as a plastics softener in children’s toys, is believed to have adverse effects on the endocrine system and to be linked to birth defects in males.³⁷ Mercury and other toxic metals leach from batteries and cell phones as they languish in landfills long after their useful lives. Some chemical agents in common cleaning products, such as butyl, are also thought to pose a significant risk to children and pets.

Heeding consumer demand for healthier products, governments and corporations are taking action. The U.S. Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in August 2008 banning phthalates in children’s toys. Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys R Us began requiring suppliers to follow similar standards for all children’s products by January 2009.³⁸

Reducing toxicity is good for business. It reduces the liability associated with risks to workers, and safer alternatives can enhance productivity and cut workers’ compensation claims. Less (or non-) toxic materials save money on handling costs, while speeding time to market since there may be fewer legal hurdles to navigate. And, of course, there’s the opportunity to market to the growing number of mainstream consumers looking for safer alternatives.

Nike’s Considered shoe line

Working toward the elimination of noxious adhesives needed to join uppers and lowers on its sports shoes, in 2005 Nike launched its Considered line. A unique weaving process now holds the pieces together while lending the boot a unique moccasin-like aesthetic – and helping it to earn a coveted gold IDEA award from the Industrial Designers Society of America. Targeted toward “deep green” consumers, Considered helped illustrate Nike’s commitment to sustainability – as exemplified through its impressive reductions of 61% in manufacturing waste, 35% in energy consumption, and 89% in the use of solvents.³⁹

Nike has since sought to make the concept more universally appealing. The new Air Jordan XX3 is constructed using material from old recycled sneakers, manufacturing scraps, and jigsaw-like components resulting in an inner construction that uses less glue. This shoe even inspired the invention of a sewing machine designed to produce sneakers using more stitching and fewer chemical-based glues. Testament to the universal appeal of green, the new Air Jordan is targeted toward the same audience as the rest of the Air Jordan line, with the emphasis placed on performance. The green factor is included as an added bonus for those who are interested. Consumers are buying. Nike brand chief Charles Denson reported that during the first quarter of 2009, the company’s basketball shoe division grew by double digits, propelled by Air Jordan sales.⁴⁰

Marmoleum flooring from Forbo

For over half a century, vinyl has been the cheapest, easiest-to-install kind of flooring. However, it fades and scuffs and eventually needs to be replaced and sent to landfills. If incinerated, the scrapped vinyl (short for polyvinyl chloride – PVC) releases dioxins into the air. The vinyl manufacturing process also creates dioxin, one of the deadliest toxins on the planet, so constantly replacing vinyl exacerbates the situation.

Propelled by growing awareness for the environmental drawbacks of vinyl, old-fashioned natural linoleum is making a comeback. Produced from linseed oil, rosins, wood flour, and natural pigments with a backing made from jute, linoleum is an ecological alternative to vinyl. Leading the charge is Forbo Flooring, the industry leader, headquartered near Zurich, Switzerland. Its star product, Marmoleum, is helping to reinvent the image of linoleum. The company asserts that Marmoleum comes in an array of colors and styles and installs as easily as vinyl, but mounts using a safe water-based adhesive. To help combat the fact that the linoleum tiles are significantly costlier than vinyl, usually about $6 to $8 per square foot as opposed to prices that can run as low as $0.99 per square foot, the company emphasizes the fact that linoleum is healthier, antistatic, and does not promote the growth of bacteria, mold, or mildew. Also notable is the longer life of Marmoleum, which the company maintains does not sustain water damage, rip, gouge, or develop gaps, but ages gracefully, staying more richly colored, cushiony, and quieter than vinyl.⁴¹ Someone is listening, as Forbo rides the green building and green home wave, enjoying net sales of over US$1.8 billion worldwide in 2009.⁴²

Seventh Generation household cleaning products

Typical household cleaning products contain any number of synthetic chemicals including ammonia, chlorine, and parabens.⁴³ However, with the Burlington, Vermont-based Seventh Generation line-up, there is less worry about child-proofing the kitchen cabinet: although some of the company’s products require trace amounts of preservatives, Seventh Generation products typically use plant-based ingredients that are biodegradable as well as chlorine- and phosphate-free, and the resulting products are just as effective as their conventional counterparts. Seventh Generation’s cleaning products are also “not acutely toxic” as defined by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, by oral, dermal, or inhalation exposure.⁴⁴

To reinforce their safer stance, Seventh Generation’s product labels and website include ingredient lists for every product, as well as Material Safety Data Sheets. The website also includes a Corporate Responsibility Report and a blog by CEO Jeffrey Hollender on all things green. Thanks to this combination of safety, efficacy, and transparency, since 1989 Seventh Generation has grown from a catalog founded to serve the green niche directly, to one of the most trusted names in cleaning products found on the shelves of Whole Foods, Target, and many mainstream supermarkets.⁴⁵

7 Think global, grow local

On average, commercially produced meals travel from 8 to 92 times farther from field to plate than locally grown meals,⁴⁶ and much of that food is carried on airplanes – the most carbon-intensive form of transportation.⁴⁷ Today, in a world watching its carbon consumption, buying and producing locally helps to minimize transportation costs and impacts, while supporting local farmers and strengthening communities. Mainstream consumers are starting to get the point. According to the NMI, in 2009 39% of U.S. consumers noted “buying products that are made locally” as an area of concern, up from 31% three years before.⁴⁸

All across the U.S. the number of local farmers’ markets is growing in response to consumers’ desire for local produce, and gourmet chefs are writing new rules for their menus, promoting high-quality local produce. According to the USDA, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. was 6,132 in 2010, versus 1,755 in 1994, and up 16% from 2009 alone.⁴⁹ Local purveyors such as Oregon-based New Seasons Market, a grocery store chain with seven locations throughout the state, to the 280-unit Whole Foods chain now make local sourcing a priority. Whole Foods even runs special Native Growers and Producers Events where local growers and producers of products including artisan snacks, vegan treats, and small batch soaps can learn about packaging and labeling guidelines, operations, and logistics support, as well as a local loan program. This is not just confined to the U.S.: UK supermarkets are increasingly bringing local food in, with one of the latest entrants being Waitrose, who as, this book was going to print, started a trial of local suppliers in its Saxmundham, Suffolk branch.

Wal-Mart

Even Wal-Mart is demonstrating a commitment to local sourcing, racking up annual sales of $400 million in locally grown produce from farmers throughout the country in 2008, making the retail giant the largest single purchaser of local produce in the United States. In 2008, the company increased local partnerships by 50% over 2006, and purchased more than 70% of its produce from U.S.-based suppliers.

Senior Vice President Pam Kohn says that this commitment saves on fuel costs and enables Wal-Mart to offer fresh products at low prices.⁵⁰ Demonstrating the potential to eliminate thousands of food miles that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, in 2008, by expanding their peach sourcing from just South Carolina and Georgia to 18 different states and selling locally, Wal-Mart slashed 672,000 food miles – translating to savings of 112,000 gallons of diesel fuel and more than $1.4 million.⁵¹

8 Use responsible manufacturing practices

Sometimes it’s what consumers don’t see that can have the most impact: the energy use and emissions from the manufacturing plant being a case in point. Recognizing this, a number of manufacturers are taking steps to reduce their plant emissions, green their energy sources, and curb their use of water, among other measures.

Kettle Foods
In keeping with its commitment to using all-natural ingredients, Kettle Foods makes its full line of snacks including potato chips, tortilla chips, nuts, and trail mix with an eye toward minimizing impact on the environment. “Walking their talk” as a producer of healthy snacks, Kettle Foods cooks its chips in sunflower and safflower oils; afterwards it converts 100% of the waste vegetable oil into biodiesel, which in turn runs a growing fleet of company vehicles and prevents 8 tons of CO₂ from being emitted each year.

In 2003 Kettle Foods Inc. partnered with Portland General Electric and Energy Trust of Oregon, a nonprofit organization, to install 600 solar panels atop their manufacturing plant, representing one of the largest arrays in the Pacific Northwest. The 120,000 kWh of electricity per year that is generated is enough power to produce 250,000 bags of Kettle Chips each year and eliminates 65 tons of CO₂ emissions per year when compared with fossil-fuel-based methods. Kettle Foods also offsets 100% of the plant’s electricity use through wind power, which is the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road or planting 1,600 acres of trees.

In 2000, when Kettle Foods Inc. moved its headquarters and production to its five-acre Mill Creek site in Salem, Oregon, it chose to restore the wetlands on the property. It introduced native and aquatic plants and built a two-acre trail system for people in the community to enjoy. They now see herons that faithfully return each year. In 2007, Kettle opened a second factory in Beloit, Wisconsin. It was the first U.S. food manufacturing facility to earn LEED gold certification. The factory has 18 wind turbines on its roof and is surrounded by prairie land that the company is restoring to its native state.⁵²

Kettle Foods Inc.’s all-natural product produced in a natural way has helped the company generate a loyal following among consumers around the world who are prepared to pay premium prices versus more mainstream chips.⁵³

9 Energy- and fuel-efficient

Electricity is needed to heat and light buildings and streets as well as to power all kinds of products, from those that plug into the wall to those that are fueled by batteries. However, the generation of electricity represents the single largest source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Nationally, power plant emissions are responsible for spewing significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), and mercury (Hg) into the air, not to mention particulate emissions that can be particularly harmful to athsmatics and other sensitive individuals. These four pollutants are the major cause of such serious environmental problems as acid rain, smog, mercury contamination, and global climate change.

Happily, much of this pollution can be avoided through simple actions and intelligent design. For example, “standby power,” which enables televisions to be turned on instantly, accounts for approximately 5% of total residential electricity consumption in America, adding up to over $3 billion in annual energy costs.⁵⁴ Cutting down on standby power is one benefit of the ENERGY STAR label (see Chapter 7), which can now be found on more than 50 kinds of energy-using product, including homes and commercial buildings.

Bosch appliances
German-based Bosch is the only manufacturer selling appliances in the U.S. to have an ENERGY STAR label on all of its models. Bosch received ENERGY STAR recognition in 2008 and 2009, and was named ENERGY STAR’s Partner of the Year in 2010. Bosch appliances, including the Nexxt clothes washer and Evolution dishwasher, are also competitively priced, ensuring their appeal to the mass market.

Bosch’s “Nexxt” clothing washers benefit from multiple new technologies: a computer sensor that optimizes the water level for each wash, an internal water heater that monitors water temperature for efficiency, an inclined drum that cleans clothes with less water, and a final washer spin at 1,200 rpm that quickens the drying process. Using these washers which exceed ENERGY STAR guidelines by 102%⁵⁵ instead of top-loader washers, can save $150 a year in water and energy bills.⁵⁶

The company’s EcoSense Wash Management System for dishwashers provides similar sensors that cut energy use by 20%; dishwashers also offer effective water heating systems, condensation drying techniques, and the option for users to select an energy- and water-sipping half-load wash. At 190 kWh per year, the SH_98M model is the most efficient available in the U.S.⁵⁷

Smart-Grid-enabled appliances
Many electric utilities, electrical product manufacturers, government, software manufacturers, and other organizations including Google and Microsoft are now working jointly to transform the nation’s power grid into one digitally controlled “Smart-Grid” network that can convey electricity to consumers more efficiently, cutting pollution and electric bills in the process.

General Electric and Whirlpool are even readying “smart appliances” that are Smart-Grid-compliant: that is, they can be controlled from afar by the power company, who can lower thermostats, switch into energy-saver mode, or shut them down entirely during times of peak demand. Whirlpool predicts it will put one million smart clothes dryers on the market during 2011. Offering the potential for significant energy and cost savings, a smarter clothes dryer may help Whirlpool climb out of recession-induced sales slump, while also benefiting the environment: an electric dryer that tumbles without heat uses only about 200 watts of electricity, in comparison to the 500 watts used by one that’s set on maximum heat. Multiplied by one million, this results in the equivalent of six big coal-fired power plants.⁵⁸

Nokia’s mobile phones
Approximately two-thirds of the energy used to power mobile phones is wasted when the charger remains plugged in or when the phone has finished charging but energy is still flowing – the “no-load” mode. To combat this, Nokia has reduced the no-load demand of its chargers by 70% over the decade preceding 2006, and aims to further reduce the demand by an additional 50% by 2010. Their most efficient charger uses just 0.03 W, beating the ENERGY STAR requirement by 94%.

In 2007, Nokia was the first cell phone manufacturer to build in alerts to encourage users to unplug when the phones are fully charged. The potential energy savings? If the owners of all one billion Nokia phones in use around the world unplugged their chargers when alerted, it would save enough energy to power 100,000 homes.⁵⁹ To save even more energy, users can turn off extraneous sounds such as keypad tones, dim the screen, and set backlight standby time to a minimum.

Toyota Prius
Representing a now iconic greener product, the now globally distributed Toyota Prius hybrid sedan combines smart design and a new brand of marketing (discussed in more detail in Chapter 6) with an exceptional rate of fuel efficiency gauged at 50 miles-per-gallon overall (city 51/highway 48). All of this adds up to fewer trips to the gas pump, less money spent on gasoline, and less pollution than competitive sedans.⁶⁰ Indeed, many U.S. states allow hybrid cars to use High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes even if there is only one person in the car, offering a competitive edge against popular sedans such as the Nissan Altima and Honda’s Accord. To Toyota’s credit, the Prius dashboard even includes a feedback display that promotes more efficient driving. Anecdotal reports indicate that Prius drivers have fun challenging themselves to get way beyond the estimated 50 mpg in fuel efficiency every time they drive. (The device has been so successful that Ford recently unveiled its own dashboard device, Smart Gauge, which is set to debut in its gas-electric hybrid cars in 2010.)⁶¹

10 Water-efficient

The United Nations Environment Programme predicts that 1.8 billion people will be living in places with severe water shortages by 2025, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be subject to some water scarcity.⁶² Due to a near tripling of per capita water usage in the past few decades, General Accounting Office anticipates water shortages in 36 U.S. states by 2013,⁶³ likely leading to price spikes and treacherous implications for crops, livestock, and other water-intensive industries.

In an effort to spur the market toward water-conserving showerheads, faucets, toilets, urinals, and even landscape irrigation practices and newly built homes, the EPA offers the WaterSense label, the H₂O-saving counterpart to its ENERGY STAR label. With the availability of xeriscaping, a water-efficient landscape that has been found to use up to 75% less water, the amount of turf grass allowed on newly built homes could be government’s next target.⁶⁴ Meanwhile, if the San Francisco-based Carbon Disclosure Project, a nonprofit group that has persuaded major corporations to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, has its way, water-intensive industries, such as auto manufacturing, electric utilities, food and beverage manufacturing, mining, and pharmaceuticals, will become water-efficient. The group is now surveying major corporations about their water use and discharges into nearby water bodies, as well as water-related risks, opportunities, and strategies.

Caroma dual-flush toilets
The average household uses 350 gallons of water per day, over 40% of which is used in the bathroom.⁶⁵ The latest development from Brisbane, Australia-based Caroma, one of the world’s leading plumbing product companies, is a new dual-flush toilet that is a pioneer in water-saving technology. The toilet has two different buttons – one for liquid waste and one for solid, using 0.8 and 1.6 gallons of water per flush, respectively. This single product with its half-flush and full-flush technology reduces water usage by up to 67% compared with traditional toilets, which use almost 3 gallons per flush.⁶⁶ Caroma toilets are distributed all across the world and bearing the EPA’s WaterSense logo they are used by universities, hotels, companies, and homes throughout North America.⁶⁷

A new rule in the making: product water-footprints. As reflected throughout this book, water efficiency is usually referred to about products in use. But a lot of water goes into the making of many consumer products. For instance, because of the water consumed in cotton growing, it takes 10,855 gallons of water to make a pair of jeans, and 15,5000 for a kilogram of beef.⁶⁸ With expected pressure on water supplies in the not-too-distant future, expect consumers to start to demand information about your product’s water footprint, similar to the nascent carbon footprint.

11 Extend product life

Consumers have long valued brands such as Maytag, Volvo, and Zippo for their high quality and long life. With the mainstreaming of green, durable products are being valued anew for their low environmental impact, eliminating the stigma often associated with used products. As just one example, Lexus gives their high-end cars a second life as “certified, pre-owned” cars, attracting a clientele usually in the market for new cars.

Stokke Tripp Trapp chair
Smart designers have created cribs that transform into regular beds as the child grows. Stokke, a Norwegian-based furniture manufacturer specializing in versatile baby products, has designed a highchair that grows with the child. With an adjustable seat and footrest, their Tripp Trapp chair evolves over time from a safe seat for a small child to comfortable seating for an adult. Constructed primarily of sustainably harvested beech wood with formaldehyde-free varnish, the chair is durable and easily cleaned with a damp cloth. Underscoring the company’s commitment to durability, the Tripp Trapp Chair comes with a seven-year warranty on all the wooden components.⁶⁹

12 Reusable and refillable

Reusable materials and refillable packaging reduce waste and save businesses money. Mainstream shoppers are getting the hang of reusability, thanks to the efforts of eco-conscious retailers that sell reusable bags in their stores rewarding consumers who bring their own bags, and penalizing those who don’t. IKEA and Whole Foods Market encourage shoppers to bring their own tote bags by giving them five and ten cents off their purchase, respectively.

Reusable water bottles
Advertising for bottled water often showcases pristine springs bubbling up from deep within the earth, but behind the scenes loom the environmental impacts associated with its transportation and packaging, which together consume about 17 million barrels of oil per year.⁷⁰ In 2006, over 30 billion bottles of water were consumed in the United States⁷¹ – 86% of the bottles subsequently became litter or sent to landfills; when incinerated, they create chlorine gas and harmful by-products.⁷² A backlash is already in place among local governments and concerned consumers, creating opportunities for Nalgene and Klean Kanteen among other manufacturers touting a reusable solution. Nalgene has teamed up with Brita water filter company in an innovative partnership to promote the benefits of bottling one’s purified water at home. Meanwhile, sales of Klean Kanteen’s sleek stainless steel water bottles have skyrocketed from $2.5 million in 2007 to $18 million in 2008.

ecoEnvelopes
Online bill paying is fast becoming the norm, but each year, more than 81 billion return envelopes are still enclosed in utility bills, credit card statements, and other mailings.⁷³ Ann DeLaVergne, a former organic farmer based in Minnesota, is attempting to rewrite the rules for assisting in bill collection: she has invented the ecoEnvelope, a reusable mail solution, which in February 2008 was approved by the U.S. Postal Service. Users zip open the ecoEnvelope by lifting a tab and pulling along a perforated strip. They then insert their response, moisten, and close the flap.

ecoEnvelopes are manufactured exclusively on FSC- and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative)-certified recycled paper from sustainably managed forests, and use soy and water-based inks. Not only do ecoEnvelopes cut down on waste, they can also help companies project an ecologically conscious image to their customers and save 15% to 45% on mailing costs.⁷⁴ Companies such as the Land Stewardship Foundation, Fresh Energy, and Renewable Choice Energy are already using ecoEnvelopes, saving money while literally sending a message to their customers about their commitment to sustainability.

13 Recyclable

It’s great if products are made from recycled content, but those same products need to be easy to disassemble in order to keep labor costs down so recycling can be economically feasible. Done correctly, designing for disassembly can lead to business success.

Herman Miller Mirra work chair
Introduced in 2003, the Mirra work chair from Herman Miller has it all. It is made from a high percentage of post-consumer and post-industrial aluminum. With a minimum number of parts – and taking all of 15 minutes with normal household tools – it is easy to disassemble for recycling. Parts are coded for recycling according to American Society for Testing and Materials standards. Because it is easy to disassemble, the chair is also a cinch to repair.

Representing a holistic approach to environmental design, the Mirra chair eschews PVC. It is made in a manufacturing plant that is LEED-cer-tified and powered by 100% renewable energy, and it comes with a 12-year warranty. The design has received positive publicity, as well as accolades for environmental and ergonomic performance, not to mention being well on its way toward becoming a design icon.

Patagonia Common Threads recycling program
A product designed for easy disassembly and made of recyclable content must also be easy for consumers to return for recycling, whether by bringing used products back to store or sent to another location, or picked up, or handed over to a retailer or other third party who will recycle them.

Patagonia’s Synchilla PCR fleece and Capilene fabrics are made using recyclable fibers that are easily broken down to their original monomers, a process that eventually results in new fibers equal in quality to the originals. Seizing an opportunity to make new garments from old ones and satisfy customer demands for recycling, in 2005, Patagonia launched the Common Threads Recycling Program, a garment take-back program driven by in-store collection of used garments made from polyester. Reusing old garments to manufacture new Capilene (polyester) garments saves 76% of the energy associated with making a new garment from scratch.⁷⁵ Representing a true closing of the loop, since spring 2007 Capilene fabrics have included old Capilene garments which have been recycled into virgin-grade polyester collected through the Common Threads Recycling Progam.⁷⁶ With the instigation of a new chemical recycling process in the summer of 2008, Patagonia can now collect and recycle nylon products, too.⁷⁷

14 Compostable

In nature, everything is recycled – waste for one organism becomes food for another. According to the EPA, approximately 30% of solid waste, mostly food, is biodegradable material that can be effectively composted into humus, an organic matter that can enrich gardens and agricultural soils, but only a small amount of consumers have access to municipal or backyard composters. So most waste winds up in landfills, where it will be entombed forever or, even worse, slowly degrade, creating methane gas, which is highly flammable and 21 times more powerful than CO₂ as a global warming gas. Composting, which typically involves the use of new biobased materials, will need to play a big part in future waste disposal scenarios. Happily, a number of new products and packages designs are appearing in the market, encouraging more composting activity. Innovative designers are now developing compostable products and packages with this idea in mind.

VerTerra dinnerware
Sometimes the inspiration for a new material can come from an existing material that may be old or overlooked. Michael Dwork, founder and CEO of VerTerra, Ltd., an enterprising firm located in New York City, on a trip to Asia saw that fallen palm leaves from plantations were being burned. He noticed that a woman had taken some of the fallen palm leaves, soaked them and pressed them into shape with a crude waffle iron and used them as plates.⁷⁸ That provided the inspiration to repurpose the plates on a larger scale as the basis of attractive, functional, and compostable line of plates, bowls, and trays.

The leaves, which otherwise would have been burned, are steamed, heated, and pressed in a local factory. No chemicals, glues, lacquers, or bonding agents are used in the manufacture of the products. In 2008, VerTerra salvaged 1.5 tons of leaves per month. In 2009 that monthly average jumped to nearly 12 tons; annual production and sales tracked in similar fashion up nearly eight times. The waste from the process is powdered and traded back to the farmers as mulch in exchange for more leaves. Compostable and biodegradable, VerTerra’s food service line has earned the BPI logo, and is currently used by major universities such as Columbia University in the City of New York, by major sports stadiums such as that of the Dallas Cowboys, and by Evelyn Hill Inc., concessionaire for the Statue of Liberty and the Playboy Mansion. In early 2009 VerTerra launched a retail line that is now available at natural and specialty stores across the country such as Whole Foods Markets and numerous health food stores and Internet websites; a set of eight plates starts at $3.99.⁷⁹

Frito-Lay SunChips packaging
Launched in 1991, SunChips, a multigrain snack made with sunflower and with 30% less fat than potato chips, has appealed to consumers looking for healthier alternatives. But after the brand team realized that its health-conscious clientele care seriously about the environment as well, they launched a program propelled by greener marketing, production, and packaging strategies – and once-flagging sales have nearly doubled from $172 million in 2007 to $308 million in 2009.⁸⁰

As part of its synergistic strategy of “healthy for me” and “healthy for the planet,” the SunChips plant in Modesto, California, which cranks out 145,000 snack bags daily, is powered by the sun, and all of Frito-Lay’s carbon emissions in the U.S. are offset by the purchase of green energy credits.⁸¹ In 2010, Frito-Lay rolled out across the U.S. new chip bags made largely of Ingeo by Natureworks LLC. Made from polylactic acid (PLA) derived from corn fermentation, it is compostable in industrial composting facilities and, since it is quite thin, over a longer period of time in backyard composters, thus representing the potential to reduce landfill waste and the greenhouse gases associated with the production of petroleum-based packaging.⁸² The bags are noisier than conventional chip bags – an issue the brand is working through as this book goes to press – but judging by nearly 50,000 YouTube views of a SunChips 30-second commercial showing time-lapsed decomposition, consumers are excited by the bag’s compostability, and Frito-Lay is demonstrating a firm commitment to perfecting this innovative new material and disposal method.

Harvest Collection by GenPak
As the use of disposable cutlery and tableware has become more common in the home as well as at picnics, parties, and other gatherings, compostable products are emerging to replace the tons of plastic cutlery that end up in landfills. One such line is the Harvest Collection by GenPak, which includes compostable plates, cups, and food containers. These products are made from renewable resources such as corn, rice, and wheat, which are either grown or recovered as crop residue. All Harvest Collection cutlery and din-nerware is completely heat- and water-resistant and will break down within months of being composted.⁸³

Compostable products are beginning to appear more frequently on store shelves, but, as mentioned above, not all products that claim to be so are actually compostable. To deal with this issue, the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) created a eco-label to help consumers and compost facility operators easily identify plastic products that will actually compost completely and safely in the proper facilities.⁸⁴ BPI’s label is designed to facilitate composting by eliminating the need to sort food scraps from tableware. This is especially useful for picking up after large gatherings. The entire waste stream – food, tableware, and cutlery – can be composted, rather than land-filled.⁸⁵ In addition to finished products, BPI certifies producers of resins, the raw materials that can be converted into a plethora of products including bags, food serviceware, and packaging.

Figure 4.2 BPI logo

Source: Reprinted with permission from BPI

15 Safe for disposal

With the potential for disposable batteries, cell phones, iPods, and other ubiquitous electronic equipment to contain toxic substances that can leach into underground water supplies from landfills, the call for reduced tox-icity is fast changing the rules for business. In 2006, the European Union passed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (ROHS) directive prohibiting sales of new electrical and electronic equipment containing more than agreed-on levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, poly-brominated biphenyl (PBB), and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants. As Sony learned the hard way, not complying with such legislation is one game with very high stakes. In December 2001, the Sony Playstation was rejected for sale in the European Union and $162 million worth of merchandise was impounded because the power cord exceeded the allowable amount of cadmium, causing Sony to miss the all-important Christmas sales season.⁸⁶

Philips Alto II fluorescent lamps
Even though CFLs represent a game-changing step forward in energy efficiency, all compact fluorescents contain a tiny, yet highly toxic amount of mercury. Once in landfills, it can contaminate underground water supplies. Indeed, many states prohibit the disposal of CFLs (and all fluorescent lighting) in regular trash. Even without laws, the value of this mercury, as well as the energy embodied in CFLs, behooves lamp manufacturers to collect the bulbs for recycling.

One bulb that is raising the bar for product disposal is Philips Alto fluorescent lamps. Easily spotted by their bright green end caps, the Alto II fluorescents have the lowest mercury content on the market, and use a lead-free solder.⁸⁷ They pass the EPA’s Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test, thus classifying the bulbs as non-hazardous waste and relieving commercial customers of regulatory burdens associated with disposing of fluorescent bulbs. Their longer life saves money on bulbs and labor-intensive change-outs. There are over half a billion Alto lamps in operation.⁸⁸

As demonstrated in this chapter, the new rules of green marketing now require businesses to adopt a life-cycle approach to their products and packages. Doing so not only minimizes environmental and social impacts and risks, and helps to meet consumer needs, but it can be also be a sure route to innovation. However, greening can present even greater opportunities for businesses that want to change the rules of the game to innovate further. Many of the strategies and tools being used by sustainability leaders for “sustainable product innovation” are discussed in the next chapter.