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Taking Care of Business
By Joel Makower
Jason Pearson is the latest to weigh in on our ongoing discussion about "radical transparency," and his is a view worth noting. Pearson heads GreenBlue, a nonprofit focusing on providing tools to help "stimulate the creative redesign of industry" through sustainability. (Full disclosure: I sit on GreenBlue's board of directors.)
Radical transparency describes a virtuous circle that is said to develop when companies, voluntarily or not, lift the veil of secrecy to reveal the ingredients and sources of their
products, enabling consumers to make smarter choices, thereby moving markets toward less-harmful products.
But, as Pearson notes, it's not just a consumer-facing idea. In fact, business-to-business transparency, says Pearson, "is a powerful engine for sustainability." Business decisions, he correctly states, are far more complex than consumer shopping choices, and the leverage that company procurement has in the marketplace make it a potent force for engendering change, if not transformation, in business practices. (Timberland's leather procurement policy, which we report on this week, is a prime example.)
Moreover, he says, "While there have been mixed results in B2C transparency efforts, B2B transparency is already happening in many innovative and successful platforms." I encourage you to read this important piece.
It's not that influencing consumers is unimportant. After all, personal consumption represents 70 percent of gross domestic product in the U.S. and, I imagine, elsewhere. But consumers have been slow to embrace most greener products. Why is that? I contend, in a blog piece this week, the reason is that green products need to be "better," however that's defined, to succeed. So far, that hasn't been the case for most products marketed as green. And until it does, most green products will languish, appealing only to tiny niches of true-blue green consumers.
Not that consumer niches can't be profitable. Aveda, whose president, Dominique Conseil, was interviewed by GreenBiz.com senior contributor Marc Gunther, may be the best example of how companies can strike a balance between environmental goals, business goals, and consumer preferences. Conseil told Gunther how Aveda became the first beauty company to achieve Cradle to Cradle certification for its products, and "the win for the economy, the win for the community, and the win for the ecology" that the company has achieved.
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Aveda, Cradle to Cradle, and a Paradigm Shift in Cosmetics
By Marc Gunther
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Marc Gunther talks with Dominique Conseil, the president of cosmetics company Aveda, about the first-ever Cradle to Cradle certification for personal care products, how innovations in packaging can shift markets, and why he's found no tensions between the company's environmental and economic goals.... Listen
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