Beyond Recycled Content
Published by Paulette Fréchette on July 21, 2009
Product scorecards inspire innovation
In today's increasingly eco-friendly world, companies have an on-going challenge to identify the right focus for their products' green attributes. Consumers are interested but often unsophisticated with their understanding of priority issues - for example, 73% of people think a home cleaning product is green if its packaging is made out of recycled materials while 36% think a home cleaning product is green if it is sold in less packaging (Shelton1).
So, when it comes to greening its products, what direction is a company to take? Environmental leaders focus on offering more product value with less environmental impact. Leaders also use a strategy based on corporate vision and commitment to improvement and innovation rather than reaction to the market.
Some sustainability leaders have focused on developing the optimal tool to prioritize goal-setting and execution during product design. Five Winds International has been working with one client to come up with a reliable way for the company to establish and measure product claims against a multitude of brands serving diverse market sectors. The result is a multi-functional scorecard that systematically allows the brand to set goals, measure the products' environmental impacts, and improve its design.
Other industry leaders, such as Philips, SC Johnson, Johnson & Johnson, and Armstrong, also have programs to measure and reduce impacts that are significant to them and their customers. While the measurement factors may differ with each company (energy efficiency vs. sustainably grown wood, for example), the end results are the same: more product value, less environmental impact. What are the components that make it work?
Versatility Inspires Innovation
The benchmarking scorecard, or dashboard, tool Five Winds most recently supported is extremely versatile. Design teams use the tool at any stage of the product development cycle to measure performance improvements and to stimulate new design ideas, with a goal of improvement in at least three of the company's target areas.
The tool spawns ideas and ways to improve sustainability. Every interface point becomes an enhancement opportunity; teams find ways to improve products by delivering more value to customers using less material (yes, including packaging), fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less waste and less water.
Green for Global Good
Big company made up of smaller brand entities? Dashboards and scorecards can be voluntary - a way to encourage healthy, internal competitive spirit to help the company reach its global environmental goals, as well as creative ways to reach common objectives. It becomes critical to skillfully engage the workforce to take ownership for the contribution of the products from each brand in reducing the company's environmental footprint.
The tool is an incentive for brand teams to focus on product outcomes with an eye to improving efficiencies and sustainability claims and to improve product value positioning within the company and the marketplace.
Each brand has flexibility to optimize what matters most whether it's a change to the distribution channel or installation of solar panels on a manufacturing facility - both can result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions per unit of service delivered to customers.
Marketing Momentum
Marketing momentum falls naturally out of the scorecard process, creating substantial communications opportunities for building claims around a product's eco attributes. Messages can be delivered with authority as the culmination of a product plan and evaluation. Green claims become reliable and valid green statements.
The dashboard approach supports building solid strategies based on real findings and outcomes from which true and verifiable marketing statements can be shaped. Trying to read and react to a confused marketplace becomes a thing of the past.
With an approach like this, companies can rise out of the "how much recycled content can I get into my packaging" type questions, and focus on what matters most - lots of customer value, and a lot less environmental impact.
To learn more about a process or tool for sustainable product design at your firm, contact Jim Fava at +1 (610) 640-2302 ext. 101.
Shelton Group internet survey fielded mid-May 2008; Utilized SSI's online community of 3.5 million+ consumers; Stratified the sample geographically to mirror U.S. Population; Data is weighted to match U.S. age and educational attainment; 1,005 completed surveys; +/- 3.09% margin of error.
