The role of 'Channels of Distribution' in Sustainable Marketing?

Channel networks range from “raw materials suppliers and manufacturers as well as intermediary organizations/facilities (e.g., industrial distributors, wholesalers, distribution centers, transporters, retailers) that engage in pass-through trade.”[1] These various channel networks work together to make products available to customers. Understanding these channel networks and the value added at each step is instrumental in assessing and evaluating how the product system life cycle can be used to make all aspects of the channel network more sustainable.
To understand the complex nature of such channels it is important to remember to look at the picture holistically. Ideally each section of the channel network should be optimally efficient and therefore create not pollution and not waste. While this is not currently available, it is important in the interim to examine the total impact of a product whether it follows forward or reverse channels to ascertain the avenues for improvement toward a more sustainable process. While improving the “environmental performance of channel organizations still boils down to implementing P2 initiatives that reduce waste and R2 applications that remediate unavoidable waste streams”[2], the simplified objectives that a marketing strategy can set are much easier to digest. Some examples of these sustainable marketing channel objectives for P2 or pollution prevention include setting targets to reduce inventories by a manageable percentage by a certain date or reducing the amount of pollution creating processes from production. Additional examples of such sustainable marketing channel objectives for R2, or resource recovery include using a combination of recycled rubber with virgin rubber to reduce waste and promote competitive advantage.

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[1] Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues, page 175.[2] Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues, page 178.

What is the role of Manufacturing in Sustainable Marketing?

While all stages of marketing need to be examined to achieve a sustainable outcome, looking more closely at manufacturing as a strategy that interconnects product and process design, end to end, is an essential chain in the larger sustainable marketing process. Additionally, as the manufacturing component of a marketing strategy is one if not the ‘dirtiest’ part of the process it is essential that the role of manufacturing in the future as sustainable marketing becomes the norm rather than the exception, be itself sustainable. Steve Skerlos, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan and principal investigator for that university's Environmental and Sustainable Technology Lab, has said that “The cost savings represented by new green technologies make a compelling business case.”[1] To illustrate his point, he said “the United States consumed two billion gallons of metalworking fluids in 2000. These emulsions of oil, water and stabilizing agents are essential in machining the moving metal parts in automobiles, motors, appliances, compressors, pumps, generators and more. They account for 12 percent of metals manufacturing costs. While the biggest cost is the purchase of these metalworking fluids, disposal costs are also significant.”[2] Through his work at a test plant, Skerlos and his associates were able to develop environmentally friendly vegetable oil substitutes for petroleum-based oils, as well as microfiltration techniques to extend the useful life of these fluids virtually indefinitely. That can save a lot of money, as a large plant can typically spend $2 million a year replacing these fluids. When asked whether sustainable manufacturing solutions will "self-assemble" -- that is, occur through natural market forces. He said: "The business case for sustainability is simple: Add value!"[3] Adding that "green" business efforts, if done right, reduce costs, increase consumers' willingness to pay more, increase market share and ultimately facilitate the development of new products and markets.

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[1] http://www.stanford.edu/group/AIM/AIMPrograms/EventsArchives/wkshparchives/GreenManuf.html
[2]http://www.stanford.edu /group/AIM/AIMPrograms/EventsArchives/wkshparchives/GreenManuf.html
[3]http://www.stanford.edu%20/group/AIM/AIMPrograms/EventsArchives/wkshparchives/GreenManuf.html

R² Strategies and the role of Sustainable Marketing.

While both pollution prevention and resource recovery both can be considered proactive marketing strategies, they differ greatly in approach. In keeping with a reduction and elimination of inefficiencies that also promote a benefit in service and/or profit, resource recovery is used where pollution prevention could not. This reuse of waste, known as resource recovery is “the collecting and separating of certain waste materials for processing into new forms, which will ultimately be marketed as raw materials for new products.”[1] Resource recovery is not only environmentally important, but it is also cost effective and therefore more efficient. It reduces the amount of waste for disposal, saves space in landfills, is more energy-efficient than burning materials, and conserves natural resources. Fuller describes resource recovery as “the process through which products, materials and energy values are routinely recaptured from waste (residual) streams and returned to economic use (redeployed) in future production-consumption cycles.”[2] Furthermore resource recovery is a function that moderates the negative impacts of waste streams that have been first downsized through pollution prevention efforts. Perhaps the most common example of resource recovery is the recycling of aluminum can. Not only does not recycling represent a foregone opportunity from an economical standpoint but there are environmental and social considerations. The production of aluminum from raw material is a dirty process. There are environmental impacts associated with each stage of aluminum production, from extraction to processing. The major environmental impact of refining and smelting is greenhouse gas emissions. These gases result from both the electrical consumption of smelters and the byproducts of processing. The greenhouse gases resulting from primary production include perfluorocarbons (PFC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), fluoride, sulfur dioxide (S02), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Of these gases, PFC's resulting from the smelting process are the most potent. Primary aluminum production is the leading source of perfluorocarbon emissions in the United States.[3] Beyond the simple example of the aluminum can there are large corporations and state initiatives that deal exclusively with resource recovery across the country.[4]

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[1] http://www.co.grand-traverse.mi.us/departments/resource_recovery/What_is_Resource_Recovery_.htm[2] Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues p. 95[3] http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1013.html[4] www.rirrc.org www.crra.com www.nrra.net