Thanks for Brinkman Climate as a client for our last client challenge in class, it was truly tough and challenging task. Indeed, this client challenge is the hardest one for me since i knew nothing about carbon offset before. Yet, through researching the information and some initiatives about carbon offset, i understand more about how carbon offset project company like Brinkman implements their program and who will purchase the carbon offset credits. So now, it is time to apply what we learned from the class to the real world.

JetBlue, one of the American low-cost airlines, once again partner with Carbonfund.org Foundation to offset their carbon dioxide generated by all the flights from April 1 to 30 in honour of Earth Month. Due to this partnership, travellers are also able to offset part of carbon footprint emitted from the flights by donating to support carbon offset initiatives. JetBlue stated it has purchased carbon offsets credits more than 350 million pounds of CO2 and CO2e emissions in total since 2008. Moreover, JetBlue is working to change their customers’ behaviour through encouraging and communicating with their customers to engage in and support their offset program to lessen carbon footprint.

However, i am wondering if JetBlue would like to capitalise its carbon offset program to attract more attention from customers, probably it won’t be the best way to do that. Since other American airlines already have similar carbon offset programs such as Delta Airlines and United Airlines have Delta’s Carbon Offset Program and Unites’ Eco-Skies Program, respectively. It probably will lead to the result that Vincent mentioned in the class, which is if every company has same labelling or similar program, company can’t differentiate from others.

As a result, i am thinking about a carbon offset membership program, this is how it works: If travellers can purchase certain amount or percentage of their total travelling distance of carbon offset credits, JetBlue will reward them with free flight tickets or flight upgrade in future traveling. It not only enables JetBlue know their customers more but also provides incentives for customers. Or how do you think by which ways JetBlue can differentiate from other airline companies in terms of sustainability initiatives?

References:

http://www.jetblue.com/green/offsetting/

http://blog.jetblue.com/index.php/2014/04/10/one-thing-thats-green-2/

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/about-delta/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability.html

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/company/globalcitizenship/environment.aspx

I remember in our first class, we discussed the sustainable beef from MacDonald in terms of how MacDonald define sustainable beef and how they will capitalise sustainable beef to communicate with their customers and society. Now, there is another food company who is engaging to make their food sources sustainable, namely Hershey.

Recently, Hershey Company just announced that they will source enough certified and sustainable cocoa to exceed the amount required for producing its four of the most popular chocolate brand in 2016. Earlier in this year, Hershey just set a goal to source 50 % of its global cocoa supply at least from certified and sustainable cocoa by 2016.

The Hershey’s sustainable cocoa initiative is based on Learn-to-Grow farm training program in West Africa. Cocoa farmers receive training on sustainable and high-quality farming practices including safe spraying and effective use of fertilisers, labor social practices, environmental practices and educational support. Through this program, Hershey is able to keep improving productivity and make significant contributions in the community in West Africa. In addition, in terms of certification, Hershey will purchase certified cocoa which is verified by the most independent and recognisable certifying organisations such as UTZ, Fairtrade USA and Rainforest Alliance. These Eco-labelling definitely will enable Hershey to convince consumers that they are performing very well on the aspects of environment-protection and social responsibility.

Hershey’s sustainable cocoa reminds me when i was commenting classmate’s blog last night, i read Burak’s blog: SustainabiliTea – Lipton’s Sustainable tea in Turkey. I am pretty surprised that these two companies are committed to develop sustainable food sources through very similar way. I am more convinced that the triple bottom line of sustainability is the essential and key element for companies to implement their sustainable initiative. I believe there will be more company to follow this rule to create their own initiative.

Reference:

SustainabiliTea – Lipton’s Sustainable tea in Turkey

http://www.thehersheycompany.com/social-responsibility/cocoa-sustainability.aspx

In class, we have been talking 「Cradle to Cradle」or 「Cradle to Grave」, but both concepts are more likely applied to tangible products. However, recently, Geneco, which is a company to offer waste recycling and renewable energy solutions, created by Bio-Bus to improve air qualities in UK. I think taking advantage of our sewage and food waste is some kind of 「Cradle to Grave.」

This 40-seater Bio-Bus, which run on biogas generated from food waste and human poo, can travel up to 300 km with a full tank of gas. Through sewage and food waste which unfit for human digestion and consumption, Geneco is able to generate enough biomethane to provide supply of gas to fuel the Bio-Bus. It also can mitigate our reliance on fossil fuel, meaning decrease greenhouse gas emissions as well. And more surprisingly, the biogas can not only be used for fuelling the bus, but also be produced energy to household and gas vehicle.

Why i think Bio-Bus is using the concept of Cradle to Grave? We can more realise from the picture below. Our sewage and food waste are processed by anaerobic digestion. This completely natural process in which microorganisms break down biodegradable materials in sewage and food waste in the absence of oxygen produces biogas. Moreover, Biogas is supplied to power bus, vehicle and even to households. And after using the energy produced by Biogas to live, people will generate more food waste and sewage, therefore, more biogas will be produced. Instead of wasting our poos and food waste in landfills and incinerators, Geneco capitalise and “take care” of them to produce biogas to improve air qualities and make the whole society more sustainable.

This example also reminds me the video talked in the class, which is the water made from poo and other waste by Bill Gates’ organization. It is such a surprise that our sewage and food waste are so valuable (if you process them properly!) and they even can sustain our life.

References:

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/waste_not/sustainable_brands/bristols_poo-powered_bus_now_running_regular_route

http://www.geneco.uk.com/Default.aspx

As an exchange student, i have been living in Vancouver for 7 months, i truly feel how Vancouver is an environmental-firendly city such as the commitment in environmental protection, recycling and carbon offset program. However, i also would like to introduce an impressive story Taiwanese people have done for making the whole city more environmental-freindly, namely bike share system.

In this past 5 years, Taipei city government cooperates with Giant, which is one of the biggest bike manufacturing companies in the world, to launch bike share system in Taipei. We called it Youbike. It presently consists of 5,000 bicycles and 196 docking stations, scattered across across whole Taipei city. Peak usage could be 60,000 hires per day, meaning each bike is ridden on average 12 times. Total usage is over 12 million hires or approximately 33,000 hires per day in a year.

I have ridden Youbike several times before. It is really user-friendly and easily to ride. In addition, i think one of the reasons why the usage of Youbike is so high because docking stations are all really close to subway stations, landmarks, public parks and schools. So for users, they can ride Youbike either to take subway, or to office, even to enjoy the sunshine in parks. The video below is the introduction of using Youbike.

As we know, riding bike instead of taking other transportations could efficiently decrease the greenhouses gases emission. And most importantly, it is a lucrative business model. The average revenue of Youbike is 120 million New Taiwanese Dollars. (equivalent to 4 million CAD) Beside Taipei, Vélib’ in Paris, Citbike in NYC, the are all bike share system and all show  progressive results. For next few years, Giant is thinking to expand Youbike to other cities in Taiwan such as Taichung, or even international expansion. Therefore, if Giant is considering to expand internationally,  probably Shanghai, Singapore could be good candidates for them.

References:

http://www.youbike.com.tw

The controversy over the use of plastic bottle water has been an essential issue more than decades. However, though most of people know using plastic bottle water is deleterious to our environment, unfortunately, it is still more convenient to buy and drink from a disposable container. Nevertheless, wastes generated from producing plastic water bottles are definitely over my expectation. As the picture below shows, 564 billion water bottles are consumed globally every year. And 36 ounces of water is consumed for making 12 ounces of water bottled, which means we need to use 3 times of water to produce one unit of water bottled. In addition, 340 million gallon of gasoline are used to produce those plastic water bottles.

As a result, we should look for some ways to tackle to it. The latest innovation for fighting against plastic water bottle is a water blob called Ooho!, which is a form of flexible water container, importantly, it is edible. Even though customers don’t want to eat it, they can totally throw it away since it is biodegradable. Therefore, it will not produce any waste. This amazing little water container was invented by Skipping Rocks Lab.

I think this container definitely could be the alternative for plastic water bottle, and we are able to reduce the amount of plastic water bottles annually by replacing plastic water bottle with blob. But one of my concerns is that how could Ooho! change customer’s behaviour, especially those who consider plastic water bottle is convenient and easily to carry. Also, when the girl in the video drinks water, water spills on the table and her hands. This probably would be one of the disadvantages of water blob for customers because it is not very user-friendly.

Even though the design of water bolb and way to use it still need some improvements, i think the ”container” which is made from a mixture of brown algae and calcium chloride could be applied to other beverage containers such as can, paper cup, or even for the packages of ice cream, jam and cosmetic to reduce other types of wastes.

References:

http://oceancrusaders.org/crusades/plastic-crusades/plastic-statistics/

http://www.skippingrockslab.com/

Last class, Tamar showed us the video of M&A’s (Marks & Spencer) Plan A, I’m highly interested in what they are doing for pursuing their sustainable goals by their video literally. Therefore, i checked it out their website of Plan A, and i found some interesting points which could be linked to the content of the class.

• Not only focus on their sustainable products, but also their customers: In their Plan A 2020, they are trying to inspire and engage their customers to participate into Plan A with their great products and services in order to change customers’ behaviour. Different from other retailers who mainly focus on providing sustainable products, M&S has mutual  communication channels with their customers. For example, My Plan A which engages one million customers in Plan A program by using various online channels is designed to create a plan to help customers live more sustainably and healthy. Besides, M&S could use My Plan A to educate their customers to influence their consumption process before purchase such as info search and evaluation of alternatives.
• To increase shared value by Plan A and develop new business model: In Plan A, they are also concerned about carbon footprint, sea life and beaches, and clothing recycling to maximise the shared value they could make for society and environment. For instance, M&S is using shwopping to reduce the number of clothes sent to landfill and creating benefit for customers, society and environment at the same time. Customers are able to consume their used clothes in a more sustainable way instead of throwing away. For M&S, they could resell these use clothes or reused them into other new fabric without generating extra amount of landfill. Overall, in five to ten years, i believe they could achieve and develop a new sustainable business model which is carbon positives and waste neutral for protecting our planet.

References:

http://planareport.marksandspencer.com/downloads/M&S-PlanA-2014.pdf

http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/plan-a/about-plan-a

Recently, i saw a news from Harvard Business Review, it says that Walmart’s e-commerce site is now labelling their products produced by more than 100 suppliers with a badge which reads  “Made by Sustainability Leader”  as the badge on the bottom right in the picture.

This badge was created by The Sustainable Consortium (TSC), and Walmart was one of the companies for providing seed funding to launch TSC at the beginning. Basically, TSC is trying to identify what is the factor of specific products which may create the most risk, environmental issues across the full life cycle of the product. Then they will create 10 to 15 questions for manufacturers or suppliers to answer, and those questions will generate a score for each product through Walmart’s sustainability index. If the score of products reach either 80 out of 100 or the highest one in the product category, Walmart will award the badge to companies  who produce this product in each category.

I think Walmart has done a pretty good job to pursue sustainability. First, as Walmart, one of the biggest retailers around the world, they have tremendous power to change their customers’ and suppliers’ behaviour. If the products with badge would be effective on customers and they will purchase more sustainable products, then more and more companies will be committing to cater to the standards set by TSC. In other words, it is also a strategic way for Walmart to reach the niche market in e-commerce market where there are already some other competitors such as Amazon because Walmart could leverage their badge to attract more attention from people who are more concerned about environmental and social issues. In addition, as Tamar mentioned in the class of Convenience, i think this badge could facilitate the customers’ buying process as the badge could be recognised easily, and customers could realize which companies are doing better than others.

I think if Walmart would like to enforce the suppliers who haven’t gotten the badge to achieve  given sustainable goals, they should categorise the products on their website into two groups which are sustainable products and normal products (or even label them with non-sustainable badges) in well-organised order. By easy comparison, customers will be able to make the right choice.

References:

https://hbr.org/2015/02/can-walmart-get-us-to-buy-sustainable-products

http://www.walmartsustainabilityhub.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/242

http://www.walmart.com/cp/1229461