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.

Photo by Daniel Suchenski


[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.

Photo by Daniel Suchenski

[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]

Photo by Daniel Suchenski

[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

Reclaiming Art Part 2 - A mixture of Wood & Ceramic

Reclaim is defined as "to bring into or return to a suitable condition for use" For this piece of art I took scrap wood from bins at my woodshop, fixed them up, put them together and made a tray frame. The ceramic inside was completed by a dear friend of mine who acquired an beautiful designer plate that developed a rather large air bubble during the kiln phase and, while "unsellable" was in fact in perfect condition and ideal for use as a tiled base for the inside of my reclaimed wood tray. This is actually one of my most favorite pieces as it was made in a very innovative style that involved multiple disciplines and a great deal of time and love.

P²: Proactive Marketing moves toward Sustainability

According to MarketingProfs.com proactive marketing involves marketing activities which anticipate competitive action and attempt to forestall it as a means of staying viable in an ever evolving environment.[1] From a business perspective pollution prevention, at its heart, aim to reduce inefficiencies while improving customer satisfaction and/or profits. This idea is adequately summarized by Donald Fuller who states, not only that, the approach of pollution prevention is to eliminate waste and wasting at the point of origin, but their mere presence is an “indicator of inefficiencies in conversion processes or activities.”[2] Fuller takes this a step, insisting that if pollution prevention strategies are not taken seriously as part of the holistic outlook of any marketing strategy then, not only is the outcome inefficient, it’s also not progressive. Even the most doubting skeptic of sustainable and holistic business approaches acknowledge the importance of confronting and eliminating inefficiencies. Pollution creation is the ultimate inefficiency, especially when alternatives are readily available. For those that still believe the old slogan that dilution is the solution to pollution, bear this in mind, an article published by a Chinese scholar in the only English language newspaper in China, China daily, reported that the cost of China’s environmental degradation as a byproduct of its economic boon could be equal or higher than GDP.[3]

A counter example that illustrates pollution prevention as a progressive marketing strategy is the ‘green rate’ offered by two Washington DC hotels. These hotels offered discounted rates on rooms for patrons willing to use the same sheets and towels over a three day period.[4] This mutually beneficial deal allows for one third of the electricity, water and detergent to be used. To see an even more progressive example in DC check out Topaz hotel in DuPont Circle.[5]

*Both Photos taken by me in Shanghai China

Photos by Daniel Suchenski

[1] http://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/library, http://en.mimi.hu/marketingweb/proactive_marketing_strategies.html

[2] Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues p. 90 [3] http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-06/06/content_609350.htm [4] Sustainable Marketing: Managerial-Ecological Issues p. 91 [5] http://www.topazhotel.com/html/green-hotel-dc.asp

Sustainable Marketing & 4 informal laws.

‘Traditional’ marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.[1] As it relates to business, Donald Fuller in Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues, states that marketing is not only an inseparable concept but, traditional marketing success has been defined as satisfying costumers and concurrent profits for the firm. This is often called the “win-win” strategy.[2] Traditional marketing often constitutes creative industries which include advertising, distribution and selling. It is concerned, not only with current marketing strategies, proper marketing also anticipates a customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research. Additionally, marketing is influenced by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Market research underpins these activities.[3]
You may be wondering, ‘What is the difference between sustainable marketing and more traditional marketing? It isn't just about selling green products to the “LOHAS” market segment, which encompasses 63 million people. Or the $540 billion Cultural Creative’s market. “Sustainable Marketing gives traditional marketing methods and discipline to entrepreneurs in the green marketing sector, teaches corporate social responsibility and green marketing to existing well-established companies, and also going beyond branding, evolving marketing, understanding our customers better, their values, emotions, and buying behavior, and their hopes for making a sustainable, restorative relationship with their families, their communities, and the earth.”[4] Fuller helps simplify this concept by stating that sustainable marketing utilizes all of the traditional marketing strategies while attempting to reinvent product systems to achieve “zero-waste, zero discharge outcomes while providing the same or improved benefits to costumers is a logical solution to pollution.”[5]

[1] Marketing definition approved in October 2007 by the American Marketing Association
[2] Fuller, Donald A. Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues. SAGE Publications. 1999. Page 3.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing[4] http://www.sustainablemarketing.com/[5] Fuller, Donald A. Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues. SAGE Publications. 1999. Page 3.

Defining Sustainable Marketing.

‘Traditional’ marketing is defined by the American Marketing Association as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.[1] As it relates to business, Donald Fuller in Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues, states that marketing is not only an inseparable concept but, traditional marketing success has been defined as satisfying costumers and concurrent profits for the firm. This is often called the “win-win” strategy.[2] Traditional marketing often constitutes creative industries which include advertising, distribution and selling. It is concerned, not only with current marketing strategies, proper marketing also anticipates a customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research. Additionally, marketing is influenced by many of the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology, and economics. Market research underpins these activities.[3]
You may be wondering, ‘What is the difference between sustainable marketing and more traditional marketing? It isn't just about selling green products to the “LOHAS” market segment, which encompasses 63 million people. Or the $540 billion Cultural Creative’s market. “Sustainable Marketing gives traditional marketing methods and discipline to entrepreneurs in the green marketing sector, teaches corporate social responsibility and green marketing to existing well-established companies, and also going beyond branding, evolving marketing, understanding our customers better, their values, emotions, and buying behavior, and their hopes for making a sustainable, restorative relationship with their families, their communities, and the earth.”[4] Fuller helps simplify this concept by stating that sustainable marketing utilizes all of the traditional marketing strategies while attempting to reinvent product systems to achieve “zero-waste, zero discharge outcomes while providing the same or improved benefits to costumers is a logical solution to pollution.”[5]

[1] Marketing definition approved in October 2007 by the American Marketing Association
[2] Fuller, Donald A. Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues. SAGE Publications. 1999. Page 3.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing[4] http://www.sustainablemarketing.com/[5] Fuller, Donald A. Sustainable Marketing: Managerial - Ecological Issues. SAGE Publications. 1999. Page 3.