Recently in Green Retail Category

USDA's proposed BioPreferred eco-labeling program that will identify "bio-based" (i.e., made out of agricultural, forestry, or marine-based ingredients) products and packages.

The USDA "BioPreferred" list includes "BioPreferred" list include PLA-based plastics, vegetable oil-based cleaning fluids, and soaps made from natural ingredients--but not food or fuel.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making it easier for consumers to identify biobased products through the release of its proposed BioPreferredSM labeling rule. USDA's BioPreferred labeling program, published today in the Federal Register, intends to create a product label that would appear on qualifying BioPreferred biobased products. When final, this regulation will allow biobased product manufacturers to participate in a voluntary labeling program to identify biobased products on retail store shelves. "Increasing the purchase and use of biobased products is a priority of the Obama Administration because it helps increase our nation's energy security and independence by using American agricultural products, while spurring economic development in rural areas," said Vilsack. "Consumers want to make more informed product choice decisions and BioPreferred will help them. This label will help consumers, businesses and Federal government purchasers easily identify biobased products." Manufacturers will be able to utilize the BioPreferred label, when finalized, to help customers identify their products as biobased. Currently, USDA has identified more than 15,000 commercially available biobased products across approximately 200 categories, from cleaning products to construction materials. Biobased products are available to consumers today and the new label will help make these sustainable products more accessible and serve as a valuable marketing tool for manufacturers and vendors of biobased products. Biobased products are products that are composed wholly or significantly of biological ingredients - renewable plant, animal, marine or forestry materials. A BioPreferred designated item is one that meets or exceeds USDA-established minimum biobased content requirements.

This Federal Register notice announces the program's intent to create and make available a voluntary product label for increased commercial and consumer promotion of biobased products. USDA, through the publication of this draft rule, seeks to notify and gather feedback from interested groups and the public-at-large on this process. More information about BioPreferred's proposed labeling rule can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or contact BioPreferred at biopreferred@usda.gov. BioPreferred encourages interested parties to submit comments on the proposed rule until Sept. 29, 2009. To submit comments go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-17610.htm. The BioPreferred program was created by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill) as a preferred procurement program to increase the purchase and use of biobased products within the Federal government. The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) expanded the program's scope to promote the sale of biobased products in other sectors.

BioPreferred is comprised of two programs: a preferred procurement program for Federal agencies and a voluntary labeling program for the broad scale marketing of biobased products. A complete list and detailed description of each BioPreferred designated item, and items for future designation, can be found at www.biopreferred.gov or follow BioPreferred at http://twitter.com/BioPreferred

Greater frequency is a mandate stemming from a core concept of sustainability, namely, that sustainability is never achieved once-and-for-all, but rather is approached through constant, incremental improvements.

Sustainable practices change!  There is tremendous opportunity for improvements as new materials, new processes, and new supply chain practices rethink and refine their environmental impact.  And we have a LOT of room to grow.

Increased precision is a mandate owed to the fact that sustainability and profitability are dual, simultaneous pursuits; hence, the objective of sustainable distribution packaging should be protection and overall performance at optimal cost and at a level valued by the consumer.

Business isn't simple -- or everyone would be doing it!  But the SYSTEM that is put in place by a company and an industry work together to deliver solutions for customers...and eventually, end consumers.  System thinking takes into account multiple objectives -- such as environmental survival and company survival. 

The great news about this month vs. a year ago...is that multiple benefits can be found in "going green" with product design fitting into the glove of protective and marketing motivated packaging.  New materials, new machines, new transportation ... and the rising cost of raw materials are all working together to make conservation and smart design the mantra for business success.

DISTRIBUTION PACKAGING

Distribution packaging (a.k.a. transit packaging) is more than just a corrugated box and interior packing, for example. It includes pallets, slip sheets, strapping, films, netting, returnable containers—even methods of blocking and bracing within the transportation vehicle. Any greener version of any component should be tested for its effect on overall distribution packaging performance.

The facts help make better decisions.  And testing gives you specific facts for your peculiar circumstances.

Traditionally, distribution package testing has been performed less frequently than testing associated with the design and function of the primary package, the simple reason being that new or redesigned primary packages come down the pike more frequently. By contrast, it's common for the same shipping box to accommodate a variety of primary packages.

Standardization has been a big benefit for distribution packaging.  Pallets, standard size cartons, and even standardized equipment helped meet lean manufacturing goals. The infrequency of distribution package testing is also a result of the practical benefits of standardization.  And that's not so good in today's marketplace that is concerned with new, greener, more sustainable improvements.

Distribution packaging can yield savings and efficiencies not only in transportation, but also in material handling and storage.

Less is more

For years,  graphic designers have promoted a clean, uncluttered design to communicate more effectively than crowded design.

Simplicity also lends itself to sustainability -- less packaging means more eco-friendliness. Consequently, even a company with a successful record of source reduction will face constant pressures to achieve greater sustainability.

A host of stakeholders including retailers such as Wal-Mart’s packaging initiatives demonstrate that retailer demand for LESS is not limited to disposal preceding display. Selling from the pallet—the staple of club-store merchandising—is also gaining presence in nonmembership venues.

Selling from a pallet demands less distribution packaging, which not only facilitates disposal, but also floor display and consumer access. Case display demands that the distribution package must not appear any worse for wear, since consumers are loath to buy anything visibly blemished.

Coordinating with Product Design

Further complicating things is that many types of products are being designed/redesigned for sustainability by reducing the amount of materials in them. However, if the new design increases product fragility, it places more demands on the distribution packaging. This underscores the importance of fragility curves and designing the product and packaging as an integrated whole.
 
IN SUMMARY, there are too many factors impacting distribution packaging to know whether they’re being managed optimally, unless that knowledge comes from a well devised and executed testing program. Companies that presently don’t test ought to immediately start. Companies presently testing ought to reevaluate their programs for areas for improvement.

READ MORE AT THE SOURCE: Packaging Insights Packworld.com

California is a high destination point for vacationers. Many green California businesses can benefit from sharpening their marketing to assist our massive vacationing population. Baby Boomers are a growing segment of that California-bound traveling sector. Referral plans are worth looking at...

And Baby Boomers planning vacation travel rely heavily on word of mouth and show little brand loyalty, according to a new study from Focalyst, a joint venture of AARP Service and the Kantar Group research firm.

The survey found that among baby boomers (ages 42-60), recommendations from friends and family were cited 96% of the time as the most-used source of travel information.

Among “matures” (age 60 and up), that figure was 88%.

Fifty-seven percent of boomers and 44% of matures also cited those familiar sources as the ones they most valued for travel recommendations.

Consumers with household incomes of $75,000 or more exert particular influence in affecting others’ vacation plans.

The Focalyst survey also found that only 10% of boomers return to the same travel brand names for their airline, lodging or vacation-cruise needs.

Baby boomers with children under the age of 18 in the household are one of the most lucrative segments of the older population, taking trips in the largest groups and spending more per trip than other segments.

SOURCE: PromoMagazine

GREEN MARKETING SOLUTION:

Send your happy customers HOME with additional information and coupons they can share with their friends and family!  Share the good news about a great value and a great time!

Is "free shipping" an oxymoron?

In this day of climate change, asthma and cancer, is it realistic for a socially conscious company to offer "free shipping" as a marketing strategy?

I've been visiting with various leaders in the transportation chain -- from truckers to insurance salesmen to aerodynamics marketers to APU designers to state regulators to owner/operators...and retailers. And my takeaway is that we are overdosing on goods movement!

Addicted to oil? That's too simple. Addicted to cheap, invisible choice that depends on oil, distant manufacturing, cheap natural resources, localized environmental and health burdens...the list of effects from our 'cause' of runaway transportation seems endless.

No one WANTS to give anyone asthma. No one WANTS to have a plate of food travel 2,000 miles. No one WANTS to force companies to outsource manufacturing jobs. We hold our nose and just do it because everyone else is doing it. Because it is expected.

Identify your SYSTEM(s)

It's about the SYSTEM we have developed.

Refine Your Systems

So what's the 'solution'?

Reduce Your Footprint by 50%

That reduction requires sacrifice by each of us.

Some Green Marketing Solutions to Consider...and Implement 

Reduce transportation. Increase localization.

Reduce blindness to excesses. Increase truth in marketing.

Reduce stuff. Increase personal relationships.

Reduce loopholes and compliance. Increase personal responsibility.

Reduce footprints on the earth. Increase real life connections and solutions.

Everyone's system is different. Only you can design a better approach that is less wasteful, more respectful of this real, closed system world.

It's up to each of us -- and it's no longer an option. We're in an emergency. There is no "free shipping". Everything has a cost whether or not we know what it is. What will you and I do about it?

Read more details about green business practices...and green marketing  at CaliforniaGreenSolutions.com

"Be the most effective you can be" -- that is the heart of sustainability.

Business still believes it HAS TO GROW. And investors want HIGH growth.  Like invasive species. It's  a governance dilemma to balance growth pressure on one side, and the realization that  environmental  damage caused by high growth is increasing long term environmental risks that can damage the company.

How do you evaluate executives on a corporate teeter-totter of growth and social responsibility?

In recent years / and months -- higher margin products were acceptable to well educated, higher income customers.  Wal-Mart's aggressive and huge impact in the marketplace is changing that equation, slightly.  They are pricing products for the average consumer to give them access to making better choices -- Wal-Mart is working to bring Waste Reduced products to the middle and lower income markets.

At the Eco-nomics conference in March 2008, Lee Scott of Wal-Mart talked about bottled water as a metaphor for balancing staying in business to serve customer demands with the business strategy of reducing costs and creating less of an environmental impact -- to be the most effective you can be, more environmentally effective.

Scott admits that their main motivation is to reduce waste -- which is equivalent to reducing costs.  In the greater scheme of business, reducing waste also reduces stress and strain on the planet that provides the raw materials in the first place.  Facing reality is a good thing. A prudent thing.  A responsible approach to long term risk-management.

Among other steps, Scott said the company is working with its thousands of suppliers to reduce the amount of cardboard and other plastic packaging in its products. The company is also looking into ways to reduce the amount of plastic in bottled water and transportation emissions and fuel use. The impetus for the company in doing all this isn’t just to please environmentalists, he said, but more to save money.

“It really is about how you take cost out, which is waste,” he said.

Waste is a huge problem in the US.  Landfills are growing daily -- and the side effect is the methane they spew into the air.  The largest -- the Number One Export -- out of the Southern California ports is waste materials -- waste paper, waste plastic and waste metal.  We're losing our recycled content to the international market and buying it back in cheaper incarnations. 

Waste is the issue of our decade. And the solution is to reduce waste for numerous reasons:  staying competitive in the global marketplace, increasing product ROI, reducing climate change risks and their growing costs, protecting our customers, families and neighbors from toxic health dangers, compliance with tightening regulations... and ... survival.

SOURCE:  Wall Street Journal