Recently in Distribution with Green Standards Category
Eco-Seals, Seals-of-Approval and Certifications
Environmental seals-of-approval, eco-seals and certifications from third-party organizations imply that a product is environmentally superior to other products. Because such broad claims are difficult to substantiate, seals-of-approval should be accompanied by information that explains the basis for the award. If the seal-of-approval implies that a third party has certified the product, the certifying party must be truly independent from the advertiser and must have professional expertise in the area that is being certified.
The FTC analyzes third-party certification claims to ensure that they are substantiated and not deceptive. Third-party certification does not insulate an advertiser from Commission scrutiny or eliminate an advertiser's obligation to ensure for itself that the claims communicated by the certification are substantiated.
Federal Trade Commission: Greenguides
earthNOW expo is the only conference program dedicated to green retail practices and the marketing, merchandising and selling of green products and services. Learn from business owners and leaders that have hands-on "going green" expreriene.
Eco-friendly, organic and natural product manufacturers that can get their products into retail stores NOW, will be the companies that succeed in the new green economy.
Eco retailing is a $230 Billion Dollar industry and will grow another 38% this year or another $87 Billion Dollars.
This is an extremely viable market, as 70% of consumers are females, the sex that controls consumer spending. These are educated consumers as 73% have bachelor degrees or higher and 31% of these households earn an excess of 100,000 annually.
Research proves that consumers will pay up to 20% more for Green Products they believe in!
Plan NOW to be a part of earthNOW expo June 4-5, 2008 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the face-to-face trade show for consumer product manufactures, retail stores and other green business leaders.
Wal-Mart sustainability scorecard standards | |
| 15% | will be based on Greenhouse Gas (GHG)/CO2 per ton of Production |
| 15% | will be based on Material Value |
| 15% | will be based on Product/Package Ratio |
| 15% | will be based on Cube Utilization |
| 10% | will be based on Transportation |
| 10% | will be based on Recycled Content |
| 10% | will be based on Recovery Value |
| 5% | will be based on Renewable Energy |
| 5% | will be based on Innovation |
Sustainability Planning Resources:
Design Guidelines Available Online
- SPC – Design Guideline
- Association of Post Consumer Plastics has a design for recyclability guideline
-
FTC Guidelines
THE WAL-MART SUSTAINABILITY SCORECARD
It’s likely that you’ll soon have to comply with your customers’ sustainability initiatives as well as your own. That's the case if you provide products for the Wal-Mart chain of retail outlets.Wal-Mart has taken a "lifecycle approach" to packaging with objectives covering reduction in waste and renewable energy. Nine weighted parameters of Wal-Mart's sustainability scorecard are measured for their prospective and current vendors.
Wal-Mart has told its buyers that, starting in 2008, they should consider the packaging scores when choosing among various products for its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. Matt Kistler, Vice President - Package and Product Innovations, Sam's Club Wal-Mart
Part of the challenge in rolling out greener products is informing customers about changes that affect their perception of savings. Wal-Mart's April 2008 "Earth Month" promotion is highlighting its greener products and informing customers how making better choices, especially on a large scale, can cause a difference. Wal-Mart is featuring more than 50 products in stores and 500 online, from transitional cotton shirts to mulch made from rubber to Clorox Green Works products.
To green its supply chain the company launched a it's "Wal-Mart Packaging Scorecard" in 2007 . By filling in information about products' packaging, suppliers are rated and find out their rank in relation to peers. Kistler said Wal-Mart works with suppliers, telling them what they can do to improve and let them know what other suppliers have done to reduce packaging.
TIPS For Packaging (and) Consultants in General
• The package is often one of the last things that a company introducing a product thinks about. Also, many packaging engineers obtained their positions by accident and do not know how a packaging system actually fits into the company—a consultant can help.
• Hire a consultant when temporary assistance is required—new business deadlines, short-term business problems, independent advice needed, searching for cost savings, etc.
• Do not hire a consultant if your needs are unclear or if your needs are long term. You may want to consider employing an expert on a retainer.
• Do not expect a consultant to fix a nonviable project.
• Determine the consultant's scope of work: Where will they work? On what specific project? When can they start and finish? What resources do they need? What results do they need to deliver to you? Be as specific as possible.
• Write your contract as specific as possible. Write work exclusions into the consultant's contract to help prevent other company departments from taking a consultant away while he or she is working on your project.
• Pay your bills on time—consultants will sometimes put a "pay by x date to receive a percentage discount."
• Keep consultants on track so they are doing what you need done, in the time frame you have both agreed upon.
• Know that most consultants will not take a job for work they are weak in—they will often point you to someone else. However, be prepared to release the consultant if they are not doing the work as expected; a release clause should also be written into the contract.
• Expect to pay a consultant from $120 to $250 per hour plus expenses.
• If you require global consultants, go to that specific country for specialists in those countries, or hire consultants that have experience in the other countries.
Jan Gates, principal sterile barrier (packaging) engineer, Abbott Vascular, offered the following recommendations when considering hiring a consultant, or working with consultants. Her comments are also applicable for those outside the pharmaceutical space seeking or using consultants. Her comments come from the January 28 MD&M (Medical Design & Manufacturing) West Conference in Anaheim, CA, and were reported on in the April 11, 2008 newsletter issue of Healthcare Packaging.
SOURCE: Packworld
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
Comparing marketing channels helps farmers determine how to use each channel, as well as which channel can be most profitable for their specific kinds of produce and time commitment.
Comparing Farmers Markets, CSAs and Wholesale Profits
Where's the core of farm produce profits?While farmers' markets have become increasingly popular with consumers, farmers themselves are beginning to ask how profitable selling at a farmers market actually is.
UC Small Farm Program director Shermain Hardesty is finalizing a case study of three farms that each market their products three ways: farmers markets, wholesale and through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which subscribers regularly receive boxes of food from the farm.
Net Revenue for Farm Produce
Preliminary results of research found that- Farmers markets generated the lowest net revenue return for all three growers
- Wholesale provided the highest net revenue return.
- The net rate of return for CSA revenues was in the middle.
Farmers markets can also provide an outlet for produce unmarketable to wholesale channels and can support new farmers developing new businesses.
To help growers determine the cost and return of their different marketing options, Hardesty and student researcher Penny Leff offered use of their formulaic spreadsheets to workshop participants and walked them through tabulation of their costs and returns. "We want to show farmers how they can determine their actual marketing costs themselves," Hardesty said.
For more information, contact Shermain Hardesty at (530) 752-7774, sfpdirector@ucdavis.edu.
RESOURCE: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
U.S. co-ops serve some 120 million members, or 4 in 10 Americans.Cooperatives operate in every industry including agriculture, childcare, energy, financial services, food retailing and distribution, health care, insurance, housing, purchasing and shared services, telecommunications, and others.
With the increasing trend of family and friends sharing resources, cooperatives provide a natural marketing strategy. Cooperatives depend on word of mouth to spread the word about good solutions, good providers, and they buy from one another, as well.
Joining a cooperative can be a great boost for small and new business people who need to network and get those crucial "first users" for endorsements and recommendations...as well as ongoing market niche sales.
Cooperative business is a rural tradition that has spread
through many urban industry niches, as well. Some of the successful
cooperative niches include:
- Agriculture
- Food retailing
- Childcare
- Professional organizations
- Banks and credit unions
- Development funds
- Economic development
- Energy
- Health
- Housing
- Purchasing
SOURCES:
California is home of thriving cooperatives, especially in agriculture and food sectors. The California Farmers Markets are just one example of cooperative organization. There's also the Farm Credit Council, Rural Business, Rural Electric Cooperatives and even Rural Telecommunications.
But urban cooperatives are also thriving -- whether they are formal or informal. Some city cooperatives include babysitting coops, daycare and preschool facilities, garage sale and flea markets, dog walking, carpooling...and even Friday night datenight card parties!
Cooperatives are the epitome of word of mouth referral sales!
National Cooperative Business Association
Two dimensional (2-D) bar codes are showing up everywhere — on food, auto parts, drug packaging, even U.S. defense equipment. What's driving this trend?
Common cross-industry demands for improved supply chain velocity, reduced packaging, better item-level traceability, and security — are intersecting with new data capture technologies to drive increased adoption of 2-D bar codes.Data capture solutions support this trend, with breakthrough near-far area imaging technology that reads 1-D, 2-D, composite, and postal codes, from 6 inches to 50 feet away.
A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. QR Codes are common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional code.
Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR Codes are now used in a much broader context spanning both commercial tracking applications as well as convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users.
Micro QR Code
Micro QR Code is a smaller version of the QR Code standard for applications with less ability to handle large scans.Design QR
Design QR makes it possible to incorporate eye-catching images of logos, characters, or photos into QR code, while calculating without losing any information of the code. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code
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
