living as greenies

This is a response to Grace Wong’s post regarding global warming. I thought the video was made simple but clearly described situation about the global warming. One thing they have not talked (probably because of time constraint) was the cause of the global warming or why greenhouse gases appeared.

The video was ironical in the way that it announced politicians make “cheap, last-minutes” short-term solutions. This video made me recall a team lecture one of our classmates made – discussion between politicians, consumers, scientists, and corporations. Politicians are supposed to listen to everyone’s opinions concerning everyone’s environment. However, it is not in reality. I think the reason might be obvious. In order to win the vote, they have to present sustainable solution which can be achieved while he/she is in the seat. This can be said to marketers. They tend to focus on the things which results can be quickly observed instead of long-term results.

In Thursday’s lecture (October 22nd), I have talked about 3 types of services as sustainable customer solutions. These are product-related, use-oriented, and result-related services. These services focus more on satisfying customer needs than specific products. There are two ways of being sustainable. One is to consume eco-products (eg. energy-efficient cars), and the other is to reduce the amount of consumption. The latter is the idea supporting for the customer solutions. Product-oriented services offer services like training session, maintenance services, and disposal services. These services help to extend product’s life and prevent consumers from buying new products. Use-oriented services (product-sharing) also try to reduce consumption of products and reduce the number of products produced. Result-related services are not strongly related to reduction of consumption because consumers might still buy the alternate form of products. For example, those who take transit might as well drive a car, and those who go to the theater might also have a DVD player (and DVDs) at home.

Although reducing overall consumption and producing less will be considered as green, this system conflicts with what many marketers approach. Marketers want to improve customer satisfaction to make consumers loyal to their products, and ultimately make them come back to them and buy (more) for the rest of their life. My concern is that if people consume less of a product, its producer will see profits going down. Is this what they want? They will not simply be happy that consumers are contributing to sustainability. Society as a whole might not be always a bad thing as there will be jobs from these new service businesses, but what about those who lose jobs? I believe one of the solutions is to encourage result-related services, because as I mentioned above, it will not necessarily reduce the consumption of the original products (but may reduce as well), and still support sustainability aspect by offering the service. This is going to really up to consumers, and they will be happy about the result that they have more option to choose from.

 I found this interesting post about a square Coke. As you can see the picture below, someone came up with a Coke bottle which has a square shape with a square bottom. This new design of bottle drastically reduces the footprint. This will allow Coke to save the storage space (and shipping space) as well as to store more SKUs in the retail stores’ limited shelf space. The bottle is stylish, and yet people can still recognize as Coca-Cola brand. Heineken seems that they designed and produced square-footprint bottles back in 1960’s. However, their idea didn’t go through. The bottle was made of glass, and designed to stack and use as a building material. This Coke’s new bottle might succeed because the bottle is going to be made of plastic instead of glass, and the consumption of Coke is larger than Heineken’s. So, how is this green? This new bottle is collapsible, and designed to reduce the space in the recycling bins, and therefore reducing the number of plastic bag used for the bins. I believe that consumers will participate more in recycling, if the bottles can be collapsible easily and smaller. The fact that this new design is both profitable to the company and economically/socially friendly makes Coca-Cola a greener. (Note: This is just an idea, and Coca-Cola has not  launched the new bottle of Coke. )

In beverage manufacturing processes, they use so much water: rinsing, cleaning, heating, and cooling. Coca-Cola is not an exception. According to Coca-Cola Company, they use 2.43liters of water to produce 1liter of coke. As sustainability becomes more of an important issue in the society, Coca-Cola is trying to be a leader in sustainability too. They set several sustainability goals in its business.

1. Water: Improve water efficiency by 20% by 2012 (started from 2004). Return 100% of water used in manufacture to the environment by the end of 2010.
2. Material and Energy: Source 25% of PET plastic from recycled material by 2015.
3. Climate: Reduce emission of greenhouse gases by 5%.

In order to achieve their goals, they have made some change over the time. For example, they sterilize bottles with ionized air rather than water, redesigned its packaging to contain less or recycled materials, and use hybrid delivery tracks. (information retrieved from The Coca-Cola Company, Sustainability section, on October 2.  http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/index.html and http://www.mygreenelement.com/category/sustainability-report/)

After I read these articles, I think Coca-Cola is implementing these to just follow the current trend and to have a good reputation, and not from pure motivation. Besides, Coca-Cola’s intention and action cannot be seen and checked by its customers. Although there are a lot of ethic problems behind sustainability action, I think it is hard for profit-seeking organizations to be sustainable, and it is ok to start off with interested motives. I believe this trend will force all the existing companies to move towards sustainability till it becomes a norm.

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Thank you for visiting my blog. I use ‘Greenies’ as to describe people who are conscious about sustainability and take action to make a change in the society.

Today, I want to introduce myself by telling what I do as a greeny.  

1. I actively participate in recycling: Separating Paper, Newspaper, Cardboard, Glass, Plastic and Tin.
2. I unplug outlets after I finish using: desk lamp, speaker, laptop, hair dryer, and cell phone battery charger.
3. I try to economize on electricity, gas and water.
4. I commute to school by bus every day.  I do not drive a car.
5. I turn unused clothes into table cloth.
6. I bring my own cutlery to school.

I will update more on what we can do to be greanies. If you have any suggestion, feel free to comment on my post.