After a term in Sustainability Marketing and a year through my sustainability concentration, I can easily say that I learned a lot more than I though I would. I’ve met great people who are passionate about the environment, who can look up and see 10-20 years ahead, and understand that things have to change in our world.

To start-off, I personally see sustainability as an opportunity for business. Yes I care about the environment, but it solely is not enough to drive people. I am a business student and my main objective in the future will be making profits, but I don’t deny the fact that the process of making profits must change because world will not sustain itself if we don’t help it. There is only one world to live in, why trash it to fill your pocket instead of care for it so the future generations can also benefit from it.

One of the most important things I learned is that customers are resistant to change, and they will not sacrifice their convenience for the environment. Most of the people are not willing to pay premiums for the green products either. The biggest challenge the green products are facing currently is that they have to offer every benefit that other leading brands offer, they have to be around the same price-range as others, they must be accessible, and they must convince people that they are actually environmentally friendly.

Overcoming these barriers are not easy, but more and more people now know that Sustainability has to be the norm, and we are the ones who is going to make it. The sooner you act the better because world is already moving towards that direction.It is not a matter of “if”, it is a matter of “when”.

Thank you to everyone in class and to Tamar for enhancing my vision and inspiring me.

The world is in our hands, let’s make it beautiful.

Pictures taken from:

http://www.mcicontainers.com/sustainability/sustainability/pages/sustainability.aspx

http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/analytics/sustainability-impact.htm

Advancing Environmental Excellence

Although marine transportation is the most environmentally friendly transportation method compared to air transportation, trucking and railing, it does not mean that there isn’t room for further development. There are many programs aiming to protect the oceans, as well as reduce the environmental impact of cargo vessels. “Green Marine is a voluntary environmental certification program for the North American marine industry.”, and it addresses nine key environmental issues including aquatic species, cargo residues, garbage management, greenhouse gas emissions, oily water etc.

The participant of this program are shipowners, ports, seaway corporations, terminals and shipyards. These participant have to demonstrate year by year improvement in order to be able to maintain their Green Marine Certification. Participants complete annual self evaluation, and the all of the results are made public to make the process transparent. The self evaluations are verified by an accredited external verifier before being publicized. According to 2014 numbers, 82 participants are involved in the program, and the numbers are likely to increase.

This certification might not be as valuable today, but I believe it may become a certification that every company must have in the near future to be able to do business within the industry. Companies who are acting quick can achieve a significant competitive advantage in the market, since sustainability is becoming more and more important especially within the supply chain.

References:

http://www.green-marine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Performance_Report_2013_web.pdf

http://www.green-marine.org/about-us/

http://www.green-marine.org

A Site for Students, Educators and Others

Tools towards being more sustainable is available to the society. A lot of information can be found online on how to make your everyday actions more sustainable, how to reduce your environmental impact, how to choose the right products etc. A good example of this is The Autodesk Sustainability Workshop. The website is created to make “learning about sustainability in design and engineering easy, accessible and free to educators and students.”, by providing “online resources that teach the principles and practice of sustainability in engineering and design.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDDlWefoiy0

The website offers free videos and tutorials about how to incorporate sustainability practices into product and building design processes. Although the content is targeting post secondary architecture, engineering and design students, the content is available to anyone for free. The website also provides valuable information to educators on how they can implement sustainability in the existing curriculum. With the help of these tutorials and introducing sustainability in schools, the new generation with bright minds can start thinking about how to build a product in a more sustainable manner.

The most important aspect of the website is that the videos are very short, engaging, and easy to understand. The videos are followed up by more information that elaborates on the specific topic and links are provided to more resources to aid the research of the audience. You can check the link below and see the structure of one of the tutorials.

Improving Product Lifetime

It is key to educate people if we want to make sustainability a common sense, and this website is definitely a valuable resource for engineers, architectures and designers.

References:

http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/#sthash.EWdyN5rQ.dpuf

http://sustainabilityworkshop.autodesk.com/about-us

Product Information at Point of Purchase

It is very important for customers to make the right decision to purchase the right product, the product that provides the benefits that they want with the lowest possible environmental impact. The information must be available for the customers so they can make an educated decision. Thanks to the modern technology, our smartphones, and environmentally responsible companies the information has become more accessible. Good Guide and Nike’s Making app help customers by providing valuable information about the product, the material used, social and environmental impact and health issues.

Good Guide is an application/website that provides evaluations of the health, environmental, and social impacts of a specific consumer product. The product categories include personal care, food, babies&kids, and household products. It enables the customers to make comparisons, and aids them to make the best decision. You can either go online and search for the product on the website, or you can scan the barcode with your smartphone app and the information will be available within seconds.

Nike’s Making is “a tool to inspire designers and creators to make better choices in the materials they use.” It provides information to make real time decisions whether you are a designer or a customer who wants to know the impacts of the material you use. “Making is powered by the Nike Materials Sustainability Index (MSI), a database that was created by Nike over seven years using publicly available data on the environmental impacts of materials.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhTjaSuBp7E

As a customer who makes several purchasing decisions every day, it is very important for me to know the impacts my purchasing decisions, and applications like these improves the trust between the producers and customers by providing transparency.

References:

http://nikemakers.com/how-making-works

http://www.goodguide.com/

Sustainable Tea Agriculture

Turkey is the World’s 5th largest producer of tea, fourth largest tea market, and has the highest average annual tea consumption per capita. Unilever’s Lipton brand has launched a sustainable tea agriculture project in Turkey in partnership with Rainforest Alliance, which “aims to improve the social, economic and environmental impacts of tea production.”

The initiative will train 15,000 Turkish tea growers one-to-one, and help them to move towards sustainable agricultural practices. The trainings will also provide information about erosion control, waste management, work safety, record-keeping, biodiversity, fertilisation and pruning, which will significantly improve the farming practices.

The Rainforest Alliance seal is placed on the packages, and Lipton aims to have all the tea sold in Turkey sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by 2018.

Tea growers in Turkey are located in very city region called Rize, and they are usually uneducated people who never had the chance to go to school. They inherit the land from generation to generation, and the farming practices are outdated. Besides the trainings, Lipton will also provide health services targeting back, spine and joint pain to around 5,000 women growers. This program will certainly benefit the local community, as well as the tea production in the world since Turkey is a very big part of it. It also feels better to know that the women tea growers will be treated better after this program and that they will be in slightly better conditions than they used to be.

References:

http://www.unilever.com/brands-in-action/detail/Lipton-s-sustainable-tea-in-Turkey/292029/

http://www.lipton.com.tr/cay-hakkinda/detay/822205/cay-tarimi-surdurulebilirlik-cay-tarimi-projesi

Save on heating costs in your holiday home via smartphone

Following our last client challenge with Brinkman Climate, I developed an interest in possible carbon offsetting programs. Myclimate recently started a new carbon offsetting program in collaboration with Swiss.com to distribute “remote control systems for oil and gas heating units in holiday homes across Switzerland.” The program aims to control the temperature setting of a house by using a remote heating control via smartphone. “This remote system saves on heating costs and energy without compromising on comfort, and thus makes a significant contribution towards climate protection.”

We know that in order to create a significant voluntary market for carbon offsetting, the consumers must be incentivized, and they must not be expected to make radical changes in their daily lives. This program provides monetary benefits to the participants by reducing their electricity cost, it is very easy to use and adapt, and it also helps reduce the carbon emissions. The installation of the remote system with myclimate discount costs between $1000 to $2000, but could reduce the annual energy cost by up to 50%, which means the long term benefits clearly offsets the short terms costs, as well as a significant amount of CO2.

Although the program specifically targets Swiss winter houses, it can be developed further and can be used in almost everybody’s daily lives. A lot of people including myself can simply forget the thermostat on before leaving home for an entire day, which results in waste of energy and money.

Reference:

http://www.myclimate.org/carbon-offset-projects/projekt/save-on-heating-costs-in-your-holiday-home-via-smartphone-370/