This morning we launch
Greener By Design, our second annual conference on green product design.
As the show's host, I've pondered how to introduce the event this year, given all of
the economic turmoil.
Has the environmental aspects of products and materials been back-burnered given the economic turmoil? Have companies abandoned the luxury of thinking about the green aspects of their projects? Has saving the planet been given a back seat to saving the day?
As I've looked at the 12 months that have passed since last
year's conference, a lot has changed. The economy, for starters. One
year ago, we were in a mild recession, though most of us didn't yet
know it, and the banks were still assumed to be rock-solid pillars of
the community. Few had heard of "credit default swaps." Bernie Madoff
wasn't yet a household name.
Energy prices have changed in the past 12 months. Oil and
natural gas are about half the price they were back then. Corporate
budgets have been cut to the bone, and some bone has been nicked away,
too. Consumer spending has gone into a tailspin. There's far less
appetite for luxuries and frills; it's back to basics.
And, of course, the politics have changed dramatically. There's a
new regime in Washington, D.C., and it "gets" the link between a
healthy environment and a healthy economy.
But for all of this, much remains the same inside companies. There's
a strong need to cut costs and improve efficiencies. There is pressure
to reduce energy costs and climate impacts. There are the growing calls
for transparency and accountability about a company's environmental
"footprint," especially within business-to-business supply chains.
Technology marches on, with new advances in energy, materials, and
other green and clean technologies. And there's the continuing need to
innovate -- to improve what you're already doing and to come up with the
Next Big Thing.
The bottom line: Product innovation and environmental sustainability remain high on corporate agendas.
In prepping my remarks to deliver this morning, and to test my
theory that the greening of products continues to grow, I scoured the
headlines on
GreenerDesign.com, one of my company's websites. I picked out a dozen stories:
• Starbucks: All 3 Billion Coffee Cups to Be Recyclable by 2012
• Whirlpool Set to Launch Smart Grid Compatible Appliances by 2015
• Teijin to Cut Back Plastics Development, Focus on Green Chemistry
• Method Earns Cradle to Cradle Certification for 20 Cleaning Products
• Mars Partners With TerraCycle to Turn Candy Wrappers Into New Products
• Sun Chips Plans Fully Compostable Chip Bag
• Payless Launches Zoe & Zac Line of Greener Footwear
• Tesco Tests In-Store Recycling for Shoppers in Drive to Cut Packaging
• Pepsi Tests Efficient, Lower-GHG-Emitting Vending Machines
• Target to Launch Organic Clothing, Greener Gardening Collections
• Old Tires Become Timberland Boot Soles
• SC Johnson Starts Listing Product Ingredients Publicly
It's interesting to note that all of these stories have been
reported in the past 75 days -- since early March. The greening of
products seems alive and well, economy notwithstanding.
True, none of these is earth-shattering, but what product
developments truly are? Even the leading automotive companies, which
are undergoing a dramatic (and painful) transition to an
electric-powered world, are doing it incrementally. That's how
progressive companies address environmental change -- with what Angela
Nahikian, Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at Steelcase,
the global contract furnishings company, calls "radical evolution."
That pace of change may seem slow to outsiders, and even to some
insiders. But that's how transitions happen in big business.
How companies are transitioning to greener designs will be the focus of the 30 or so
speakers and
sessions
at Greener By Design. One thread of the conference -- whose subtitle is
"Greener Products for Leaner Times" -- is how companies should operate
under what is being called "The New Normal": the economic conditions
and social attitudes that have shifted as part of the financial turmoil -- and in some cases, well before that.
For example, for years, we've been seeing a move toward what I call
"relocalization" -- the repatriation of food, energy, and commerce to
local communities. In an age of toxic toys, tainted food, and what
Thomas Friedman has dubbed
petro-dictators,
people are taking increasing comfort in knowing where their stuff comes
from and how it's made, and by whom. They want to know the source of
their food, that their fuel and household energy isn't supporting
dictators or blatant polluters -- and the supply won't be cut off or
manipulated willy-nilly. They want to know that the merchants and
manufacturers they patronize aren't shipping jobs overseas, and that
the banks where they do business are investing their money locally.
(Michael Shuman covered much of this nicely in his 2006 book
The Small-Mart Revolution.)
There's also a reprioritization taking place: People are rethinking
what's really important, and what it means to "live well." Turns out, having more toys requires having more debt. There's a growing
resurgence of living within one's means, of being more self-sufficient.
There are more people taking up sewing, knitting, and canning -- and not
just women, or those with low incomes. And more vegetable gardening,
including
one famous one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Amid all this, people are reconnecting, responding to a sense that
they have lost touch -- with their communities, their planet, each other.
Given these trends -- relocalizing, repriortizing, and reconnecting --
how do companies think about their next generation of products and
services? What are the new designs -- of products, but also of business
models and systems of commerce -- that will align with The New Normal?
And how will tomorrow's products be not just greener, but
better?
I'm looking forward to the conversation.
