This article was published by The Economist (Insights) in November 2014, and can be found here.
Many companies have achieved energy and resource efficiency gains within their own operations, and are now eyeing the next prize: improving efficiency outside their organisational boundaries.
Companies such as GSK and Ikea have led the way, with sustainability targets for their whole value chains including upstream supply chains, downstream channels and even customers.
A company’s customer base can be a major source of environmental impact and risk through the way its products are sold, used, and disposed. However, unlike their supply chain, businesses have little or no direct control in managing it.
Consumer-facing products and services must therefore be sustainable by design. Furthermore, any initiative to influence behaviour must contend with the instinctive and emotional nature of buying decisions. Ignoring this will relegate sustainable products to the ‘green’ niche, and will fail to get traction with mass market consumers – a missed opportunity.