Recently in Product Authentication & Tracking Category

Deborah Fleischer, founder and president of Green Impact, works with mid-sized companies to launch green initiatives . In a recent entrepreneur's coaching event, she observed three key challenges common to many of the companies she spoke with.

1. Lifecycle assessment (LCA): LCA is an approach that considers the cradle-to-grave lifecycle chain involved in producing, using and disposing of a product or service. It forces you to consider materials use, energy consumption and related greenhouse-gas emissions of your product, packaging and transportation decisions.

While larger corporations might have the resources to tackle LCA head on, across the board, the start-ups were struggling with easily accessing good data to help them estimate the key impacts associated with their entire value chain.

A few LCA resources for start-ups to consider include Sustainable Minds, Earthster and EIO-LCA.

2. Packaging: Many of these clean tech products require packaging and pushing for recycled content and avoiding plastic is a challenge for a CEO with twenty other competing priorities.

The Sustainable Packaging Coalition is a great resource on this issue.

3. End of life: Thinking about what happens to these new "clean" products at end of life is challenging. How do you create incentives to get consumers to recycle or return a product? One of the start-ups was considering a rebate program and another planning on using a mailer to make it easy to return the product at the end of its life.

Read more at Matter Networks

Deborah Fleischer, founder and president of Green Impact, works with mid-sized companies to launch green initiatives that encourage innovation and grow market share.

Intelligent Nutrients (IN), includes an authentication component in its packaging. This Minneapolis-based start-up markets a certified-organic line of personal care products such as pure-seed face serum.

Unique Product Identification Numbers

From the day Intelligent Nutrients's product was made available to consumers, the bottles, cartons, cases, and pallets have all carried unique identification numbers tied into the Digital Authentication, Track and Trace (DATT) system from Verify Brand LLC.

"DATT emerged from the pharmaceutical industry, where certain drugs have to be tracked every step of the way. It's an extremely effective defense against diverters and counterfeiters," says Rick Goldberg, IN Directing Manager.

A Verify Brand solution will help detect and deter counterfeiting and diversion, isolate other unauthorized activities and support improved forward and reverse logistics management, e.g. recalls, returns and warranty claims. A Web-based brand protection solution for product authentication and improved product tracking can identify and isolate the location of counterfeit, adulterated or diverted products, isolate an issue and support real time responses to these events. This dramatically increases barriers to entry for both current and potential counterfeiters and diverters. In fact, the mere presence of this system can deter would-be counterfeiters or drive current offenders away.

Item level unique identification of products, grouped through parent-child relationships for distribution efficiency and easy access to Web-based authentication will provide a currently unavailable level of visibility into the movement of products throughout the supply chain, up to and including the point of use and when returned to the manufacturer for whatever reason.

All system are constantly monitored, logged, analyzed and viewed or reported dynamically. This enables Verify Brand and the brand owner to dynamically and in real time:

• Identify and locate counterfeit or diverted product
• Identify less than trustworthy supply chain partners
• Verify returned product authenticity
• Manage contract manufacturing
• Track product movement
• Initiate or manage product recalls
• Measure system usage patterns and frequency
• Determine who is using the system (or not) and where
• Measure and monitor customer buying activity and patterns
• Adjust or increase system usage where needed
• Pinpoint system usage abuse or problems
• Obtain valuable data and feedback from the supply chain and customers
• Improve non-security related supply chain management activities, e.g. inventory management
• Disseminate targeted brand and marketing messages
• Provide data for a regular and quantifiable Return on Investment

More info:  Verify Brand and Intelligent Nutrients