Do Ten Things, Do 100 Things

Ikea OGLA chair - made from 100% post-consumer plastic waste

by Kevin Roberts

I wrote a few weeks ago about Do One Thing, the Saatchi & Saatchi S initiative to personalize sustainable actions. Real change requires a ground swell of action, but as companies we can take decisive steps that have impact.

Walmart recently discontinued issuing paper checks to its employees in favor of electronic payments. By that stroke alone it will save some 257,572 pounds of paper a year.

Tesco in the UK has announced that it is now diverting 100% of its waste from landfills. This is no small feat, since it encompasses all of Tesco's 2300 stores and distribution centers in the UK.

Marks & Spencer has pledged to meet 100 separate commitments to reduce impacts within a five-year time-frame, and has already achieved 39 of those within the first two years.

Here are ten things Ikea did to be more sustainable:

1. Replace polyvinylchloride (PVC) in wallpapers, home textiles, shower curtains, lampshades, and furniture - PVC has been eliminated from packaging and is being phased out in electric cables;


2. Minimize the use of formaldehyde in its products, including textiles;


3. Eliminate acid-curing lacquers;


4. Produce a model of chair (OGLA) made from 100% post-consumer plastic waste;


5. Introduce a series of air-inflatable furniture products into the product line. Such products reduce the use of raw materials for framing and stuffing and reduce transportation weight and volume to about 15% of that of conventional furniture;


6. Reduce the use of chromium for metal surface treatment;


7. Limit the use of substances such as cadmium, lead, PCB, PCP, and AZO pigments;


8. Use wood from responsibly-managed forests that replant and maintain biological diversity;


9. Use only recyclable materials for flat packaging and "pure" (non-mixed) materials for packaging to assist in recycling.


10. Introduce rental bicycles with trailers for customers in Denmark.
    At Saatchi & Saatchi, we're setting goals relating to optimal management of our buildings, and doing less traveling. And individually our employees each declare what their DOT is.

There's an interesting exchange on the post I published a few weeks ago on DOT - a reader claiming that the "incremental steps" model does not achieve transformative change. Adam Werbach responds to this and other views on this, and how he believes the "bottom-of-the-pyramid" actions on the part of the general population have a major effect on decisions made by companies and governments. More on this to come.

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Mumbai's Innovation Hub

by Vyoma Kapur

Innovation in the developing world, as many people may tend to think, comes from either large conglomerates or small entrepreneurial communities which have had the good fortune of venture backing. Especially in a free market economy, such as India's, innovation is often thought of as the mandate of thriving businesses equipped with the know-how.

In Mumbai, India's economic powerhouse, the real social innovation is coming from the grassroots. These are people, who despite having little, are the answer to Mumbai's mounting waste management problem.

The dwellers of the Dharavi slum, the largest in Asia, have created a massive recycling industry. Invaluable for the social impact it has created, the slum's existence is supported by high-strung officials and ordinary civilians alike. Using simple machines in their home factories, these dwellers are recycling anything from plastic bottles and metal cans to paper and cotton, saving the city from the wrath of its own garbage. Over 80% of the plastic waste of Mumbai is recycled in the Dharavi slum.

As the consumerism of Mumbai's upper and middle classes disposes of thousands of tons of waste material everyday, energetic young men of Dharavi sift through piles of trash to gather anything with the potential of being recycled. Different types of junk is given a new life and then sold for a bargain. With support from non-profit organizations such as ACORN International, rag-pickers are taught how to manage solid dry waste.

With an increasing number of micro-entrepreneurs entering the recycling business, this industry has seen an astonishing level of organic growth. The slum produces a jaw-dropping $1.3 billion worth of recycled output every year. There are approximately 400 recycling units, and the number is increasing every month.

Spreading across approximately 174 hectares, this slum is like any other. It lacks food and proper sanitation and is rife with squalor. For a few hours everyday, some areas of the slum are supplied water and electricity. Despite making only a fraction of the salaries earned by their counterparts in more developed areas of Mumbai, many of these dwellers are finally finding their way out of poverty through the huge demand for their services. Needless to say, environmentalists are in full praise of this green industry, a rarity in the hustling cites of India.

Having spent a few years in India, I find this commendable. I have not seen the Dharavi slum, however; I've seen many other slums, just like those depicted in Slumdog Millionaire. That slum dwellers could become social entrepreneurs within their own capacity to fight for survival never crossed my mind.

The Dharavi example made me wonder; do we always need a team of experts and comprehensive research data to innovate? Is it not about solving the problems in front of us and seeking ways to improve what is defined and traditional? To the Dharavi dwellers, the waste piled up around their homes was not a problem, it was an opportunity. They became rag-pickers and set up mini factories with whatever little they had. In time, they turned Dharavi from being Mumbai's biggest headache to one of its greatest assets, setting an example for similar communities around the world.

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A marketing professional turned entrepreneur, Vyoma avidly supports and practices open innovation. Earlier this year, she founded Colspark LLC (www.colspark.com), a crowdsourcing platform to help companies tap into student talent for ideas and solutions.

Innovating on a Tighter Budget

by Andrea Meyer


Point: Innovation doesn't have to be expensive


Story:

Current surveys indicate that more companies are reducing innovation budgets this year, but the good news is that innovation doesn't have to be expensive. Here are two stories that show how to innovate inexpensively:

J.B. Hunt was just a truck driver in the 1940s when he saw that rice mills in Arkansas were disposing of rice hulls by burning them. Rice hulls are the fluffy tough fibrous shells removed to create white rice. The waste hulls gave Hunt an idea: he contracted with the mills to haul away their rice hulls, and then he sold the hulls to poultry farmers as chicken-house litter. After Hunt's revelation of the potential value of rice hulls, others found additional innovative uses for the material: pillow stuffing, high-fiber additives for pet food, natural building insulation, filler for injection-molded plastics, and using rice hulls to improve apple juice extraction.

Similarly, old rubber tires are being ground up and made into roads and shoes. And clothing & outdoor gear maker Patagonia asks customers to bring in their worn-out Capiline® clothing (a polyester fabric) rather than throwing it away. Patagonia has devised a way to break down the discarded fabric into plastic chips and then re-spin them into new synthetic yarn. Given the increasing concerns about proper waste disposal, waste products provide attractive opportunities as no-cost or low-cost sources of innovative raw materials.

In addition to innovating with waste products, companies can leverage fallow innovations. During the early 1980s, IBM Corp was spending at least a hundred times more on R&D than Apple Inc. But upstart Apple found a way to leverage some new underutilized technologies (the computer mouse, high-resolution display monitors, the power of the 32-bit microprocessor and the graphical user interface) to create the Lisa and then the Macintosh. What existing technologies could you put to use in new ways?

Action:

• Survey existing supplies of materials and streams of byproducts


• Look for materials that are underutilized or are discarded


• Consider how those materials might be recombined, repurposed, or refurbished for other, valuable applications

For More Information:

Patagonia's Common Threads Garment Recycling Program

"Innovation to the Core" by Peter Skarzynski and Rowan Gibson

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Author of more than 450 company case studies and contributor to 28 books, Andrea Meyer writes & ghostwrites about innovation, IT and strategy for clients like MIT, Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Co., and Forrester Research. Follow her at www.workingknowledge.com/blog and twitter.com/AndreaMeyer.

Save the World - One Action at a Time

Saving water is going to become ever more important as time goes on. If you're easily offended, skip this one, but it's really pretty harmless and the ad campaign referenced is targeted at children.




by Kevin Roberts

A great ad is one that can be understood across borders without the need for subtitles or translation. That's the case with the TVC above created by F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi for the Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlântica. The message here couldn't be any more clear.

SOS Mata Atlântica says that if a household avoids just one flush a day, it can save up to 4,380 litres (1,157 gallons) of water annually. It's the little ways we can make a difference each day. Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, focuses on the impact of our collective "nano-practices" - the hundreds and thousands of tiny things you do each day that together make up your lifestyle. In his 'Birth of Blue' speech last year, he explained the idea: "How you tie your shoes, the type of shoes you wear, your choice of socks, how you fold your socks, and whether you wear your shoes indoors. Instead of trying to change the big things about someone's identity...we start by finding daily or recurring practices that can express his or her values." We all could cut down on our water consumption every day. It might be peeing in the shower, taking a shorter shower, or waiting a day to do a load of laundry. One thing can add up.

The other reason this TVC has had such a big response is the way it communicates with us. Sure, the environment is an important and serious topic, but preaching doom and gloom is no way to save the world. Instead of scare tactics and depressing statistics, this ad goes for humor, and there's no better spokesperson for tomorrow than kids. They can diffuse any situation. The campaign includes posters, a television film and a website which features a frog imploring us to pee in the shower, all to generate awareness about water wastage.

Saving the planet turns out to be easier than expected. Listen to the children and xixi no banho!

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Rewarding People for Helping the Planet

by Kevin Roberts

If guilt is the gift that keeps on giving, here's an easy way to break its grip. We're all aware of the things that we can be doing to improve society, the community, the environment - but frequently we don't get around to activating this desire, usually because it involves sacrifice or getting around some inconvenience.

Recycling is one thing that's easiest enough to do, yet we don't recycle as much or as often as we could. Eighty percent of all garbage is recyclable, yet the average residential recycling rate is less than 20 percent. Recycling saves cities millions of dollars in landfill and disposal fees, saves trees from the paper mill, and even millions of gallons of oil from use.

Some point this as a result of problems in the infrastructure of cities or simply that it's not convenient enough to do. Some of our cities are better placed with bins and programs, while other cities leave it entirely up to your own persistence.

Maybe we need more incentive to do so? That's the approach from the people at RecycleBank. They have introduced the element of rewards into how and when you recycle for both curbside pickup and electronic waste recycling.

RecycleBank's slogan is "Rewards for people and planet". So what do people get? Similar to an airline rewards system, you earn points that are redeemable for goods or discounts from retailers. Some pretty big names have signed on - Target, Kraft, Sears, Evian, and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Headquartered in New York City - about three blocks from the Saatchi & Saatchi office - and co-founded in 2005 by Ron Gonen, RecycleBank now serves over 20 million people in America. Last week, Mayor Daley in Chicago instigated the RecycleBank program in 10,000 households. This summer they launch in Europe. They're also expanding the program to include additional Blue actions, e.g. using solar and wind power, efficient use of water, riding public transportation, or buying products that are manufactured from recycled content.

I think the idea is a very good one, as do some of the savviest venture capitalists in America - Kleiner Perkins are among the investors. For what it's worth, the United Nations and World Economic Forum agree. Incentives can be a smart strategy for any product or service, especially when those coincide with rewards for the planet. Now that's Blue Thinking.


Image Source: RecycleBank.com

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Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

Our Modular Electronics Future

THE POINT: Leading electronics companies can lead a movement to future-proof their businesses by innovating updatable products that encourage customer loyalty, sustainability and pragmatic fun.

Creating Consumer Electronics 2.0

It's easy to blame tighter purse strings for falling electronics sales figures. But it's not just lack of money that's keeping customers away; it's fear of instant obsolescence.

Today's consumer consideration set has fundamentally shifted. We now want long-term value, not just the latest and greatest.

Yesterday we used an electronic device until it broke or a better one superseded it. We disposed of the old with great dispatch. Brands using a Parallel Model of product development kept us enthralled with a constant churn of new shiny objects and updated versions. Durables were recast as disposable. Sales and stocks soared. Best Buy created a whole new business, Geek Squad, to help us keep up. We wanted new toys, but needed Geeks to show us how to use them. We delighted at every new feature. We also started feeling pangs of "buyer's hesitation" as Moore's Law kept shortening product life cycles. Particularly as we started replacing devices that still worked just fine.

Oh, how we loved our first iPod - 5GB of musical magic for $399. But oh, how quickly we tossed our still-working sweetie into a drawer, lured by ever-smaller, higher-capacity, ever-cheaper iPods. As prices fell and capacity increased, however, internal conflict also rose. We could never be sure of our decision to buy or when. Wouldn't something far superior be just around the corner?

Today's economic realities compound these past experiences. The consumer technology industry has inadvertently trained us to delay purchases. Though it drove 15 years of unprecedented growth, this Parallel Model won't hold for the next 15. Lowered components costs will not be enough to spark demand.

What might tempt us to spend? An assurance that we're investing in technology rather than playing silicon hopscotch.

Manufacturers and brands need to move from a focus on this year's model to a focus on a whole new model.

Consumers now demand enduring goods we can easily update ourselves. We welcome a new Series Model age of product development.

Imagine how transformative it would be to have an industrial/retail structure where product parts are swapped out [and recycled], where the upgrade is built in, where the form can completely change to answer new needs or aesthetic desires.


It's not such a new concept, but a return to the long-term pragmatism that skipped a generation. Grandma insisted on products that were built to last; tech-savvy Millennials expect the same. Favored Serial Model brands would reflect their values: respecting resources and sustainability; nurturing networked relationships; promoting self-reliance and utility as the height of style.

Consumers embrace smart series strategies in other sectors. We don't throw away our cars when a new set of tires or a paint job is needed. We put energy-efficient bulbs and new shades on perfectly functional lamps. We buy the latest razor blades for our enduring shaver. Why not make consumer electronics as easy to update?

Switching to series production requires moving from a focus on design to a focus on the well designed. It's a long-term view with manifold benefits.

Series Model: Answers both producer and consumer desires for Value and Profit:

• Creates a deeper bond between consumers and a brand, provided that the producer commits to improve and evolve the technology.


• Eliminates the waste of a churn-n-burn model, freeing up investment capital for developing huge, category-creating innovations that radically improve consumers' lives.


• Generates a can-do dynamic between manufacturer and consumer. Since service people cost more than manufacturing labor, it behooves the manufacturer to make swapping out updating / fixing so easy that the consumer will happily take on the task.

Series Model innovations might include:

• Swapping out a circuit board like we do memory cards


• Placing more functionality in parts that can be easily replaced like controllers & remotes


• Designing for aesthetic/functional switching thru more attachment inputs


• Creating energy-improving refrigerator cooling unit upgrades that utilize existing casing


• Making upgrading a 3 mega-pixel camera to an 8 mega-pixel as easy as switching lenses

Activating this Series Model will likely require both producers and consumers to pay more upfront. But these costs should be framed as an economic offset for all stakeholders.

The extra dollar spent on a modular manufacturing schema saves countless dollars on retooling for new gadgets, shipping, warehousing and more. Value-conscious consumers are now ready to see the long-term savings of buying modular products from trusted brands.

The first mover in this space has an opportunity to bond with customers. To cement an enduring relationship with Millennials. And to innovate for this recession in a way that future-proofs its business for decades to come.

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Marcus Oliver is an Innovation Director at innovation consultancy Fahrenheit 212 in New York. Fahrenheit 212 delivers bigger ideas, faster to market.