Greentailing

Greentailing
Irrelevance or innovation?
September 01, 2009

The sustainability revolution is the new industrial revolution, yet the inception of this new era is being halted by our industry’s fixation on reductionism versus sustainability—the goal of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Everyone in the retail environment still has an enormous opportunity to become pioneers in this sustainability revolution by discovering methodologies that produce more than they take. The challenge? You’ll only get there through innovation—not by plucking the low-hanging fruit that everyone is talking about.

Take a look back 250 years to the catalysts of the industrial revolution: the emergence of textiles, steam power and iron founding. From these three basic technologies, an entirely new industry emerged, spinning out the legacy brands and manufacturing technologies we still rely on in our modern lives. The innovation at this time wasn’t just about the end product, but also how the systems and technologies to deliver those products were created—and the most innovative, efficient and cost-effective producers won.

Innovative thinking during the industrial revolution is what set apart the legacy brands that still exist today. Think GE, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Coca-Cola, Pfizer, Caterpillar and even IBM—all of these companies were formed sometime between 1885 and 1905, although usually under different names. IBM, for example, was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine Company.

As new companies strive to reach those levels of brand value, they fall into the trap of copycat methodology. They find creative methods for making alternative versions of the original product to suit various customer types and repackage them in “hip” ways. In the struggle to earn the buy and stay alive, quality takes a backseat to bottom line, and as a consequence, turns innovation into a series of creative cost-saving and reformatting tactics. Sound familiar?

The recently announced Global Sustainability Index from Wal-Mart and Nike’s Global Procurement Corporate Responsibility Assessment are indicators, along with a slew of other drivers, of the big push for innovative thinking in the sustainability space. These brands expect their partners to align with their new emerging value sets, and anyone that services the retail arena is not immune. The new sustainable revolution presents our industry with a new playing field on which the companies that are the most innovative and responsible in their practices will become the ones that will secure success until the next revolution—one that I hope comes around faster than the current one.

History is the most respected storyteller we have, and while she will tell us that it takes time for new technologies and practices to become common practice, the early adopters always have the competitive advantage of exploring and reorganizing available technologies to their long-term benefit. Sustainability = Innovation.

Today, new and accessible technologies, such as renewable energy, recycled and bio-based resources and information technologies, provide the platform for the sustainability revolution. No different than some of the founding technologies of the first industrial revolution, these new technologies emerged out of the natural order to be efficient and resourceful.

Innovation is not just about the conceptualization of new product or brand, it is rooted in finding new and effective methodologies that are concerned with and address the entire lifecycle of product—from the source, to the processing, to the manufacturing, to the shelf and back into the supply chain as post-consumer.

Now the challenge. In your next company meeting, I challenge you to ask the question, “Are we innovative?” Take survey of the reaction. My guess is that you’ll hear most folks say that innovation is not their job. You may hear things like, “My role is to just to keep the contractors in order,” or “to make sure the goods are delivered on time,” or “to ensure customer satisfaction is better than last quarter.” What some companies fail to realize is that innovation is everyone’s job, and it is up to each person in the company to be empowered to raise those green flags of opportunity.

For too long, the green movement has been coined as an addendum to day-to-day business. Today, we’ve finally learned that “greening” is a practice of efficiency and resourcefulness, which are good things in the eye of business. But to have value in the economy of tomorrow, we have to look past “greening” and the reductionist mindset, and reignite an innovative business culture that sets sustainability as our new North Star. This leaves every company with two choices: irrelevance or innovation. Go forward and explore my friends!

Cheers,

Justin Doak
Founder, Ecoxera – Green Business Strategy for Retail
Send green retail questions to justindoak@ecoxera.com.