Green Product Development
What is Green?
New organizations must build their product development strategy involving ‘green’, that is a conceptual color, that according to (Sullivan, 2008, p. 8):
“Connotes cleanliness, freshness and renewal—and, of course, environmental friendliness— but experts warn that green now is overused in the marketplace. It is one of the most predominant, naturally occurring colors, so it often is associated with wholesome attributes. It works well for organic or recycled products, or for brands associated with health and wellness”; hence, a green product can be perfectly associated to the sustainable product, which is a product that “will give as little impact on the environment as possible during its life cycle” (Ljungberg, 2007, p. 467).
Green product development (GPD) “Green product development, which addresses environmental issues through product design and innovation, is receiving significant attention from consumers, industries, and governments around the world.” (Chen, 2001, p. 250). In the same way, it is stated that GPD “which aims to prevent pollution from the beginning through product design and innovation, has thus emerged as an innovative and sustainable tool for solving today's environmental problems” (Chen, 2001, p. 252). It means that some practices of the product development process have to involve environmental issues. González-Benito & González-Benito (2006) considered the product-related and process-related operational practices. The product related practice: “includes practices focused on designing and developing more environmentally conscious products. For example, it comprises the design efforts for eliminating polluting and hazardous materials in products, for reducing resource consumption in production as well as in product usage or for facilitating disassembly and hence reusability, recyclability and remanufacturing” (p.88).
And the process-related practice:
“focuses on the development and implementation of more environmentally conscious manufacturing and operational methods and processes. Some of them affect internal processes and encompass remediation and control practices (e.g. installation of emission filters or waste separation and preparation systems) together with prevention practices (e.g. use of renewable energy resources or acquisition of clean technologies) Other practices affect external processes, and influence supply and distribution activities and, in general, company interactions with other elements of the value chain. It is worth mentioning the purchasing of ecological products, the inclusion of environmental performance criteria in supplier selection processes, the consolidation of shipments, the use of reusable or recyclable packaging and cleaner transportation methods or the establishment of recuperation and recycling systems” (p. 89)
GDP stages
It is important to state that the core stages or phases of the GPD are similar to those of the NPD, nevertheless, the environmental variable is now a key concern, which means that “the environment must be seen as a part of the development process and not be taken for free to use” (Ljungberg, 2007, p. 468); so GP developers must redesign processes considering the environmental demands and the environmental impacts. Under these two considerations, they must remodel some elements during the process, being one of them the life cycle of the GP which includes “extraction of raw material, production, use and final recycling (or deposition). The material in the product as well as the material (or element) used for producing energy is also included here.” (Ljungberg, 2007, p. 467). Another element is the labelling and marking, so companies should “inform customers whether a certain product is environmentally friendly, different kinds of environmental marking systems have been developed.” (Ljungberg, 2007, p. 467). Besides, companies must think about Recycling, which, according to Ljungberg (2007), can be done in different ways like: energy recycling, material recycling, re-use (or recycling), breakdown. When recycling cannot be done, deposition may be a suitable solution, which is “a way to store materials during circumstances where as low environmental impact as possible for all time will be guaranteed” (Ljungberg, 2007, p. 473).
Examples success of ‘going green’
It is undeniable that the emerging environmental rules and restrictions are impacting hard the industry, “steel companies and public utilities have invested billions of dollars in pollution-control equipment and environmentally friendly fuels, making hybrid cars, low-flow toilets and showers, organic foods, and green office buildings everyday” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 80), it is also true that some organizations, which have become aware of the damages to the planet, have implemented successful measures to decrease it.
The followings are a few examples:
Taylor ( 2007 cited in Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 80) wrote that:
“- Nearly a quarter of the carbon dioxide that makes up about 80 percent of all greenhouse gases comes from electrical power plants. Dublin-based Airtricity operates wind farms in the United States and the United Kingdom that offer cheaper and greener electricity.
- Transportation is second only to electricity generation as a contributor to global warming, accounting for roughly a fifth of carbon emissions. Vancouver-based Westport Innovations developed a conversion technology—high-pressure direct injection—that allows diesel engines to run on cleaner-burning liquid natural gas, reducing greenhouse emissions by a fourth.”
In the same way (McNulty, 2007) brings some other successful example results:
“Now saving the planet is big business. We recently heard from an executive at Philips Lighting that the company was working its way out of the incandescent light-bulb business. Wal-Mart is also basking in the fluorescent glow, hoping to sell 100 million of the energy saving bulbs. The Home Depot is creating an eco-friendly endorsement label for a growing number of its products”.
Another success case was that of Clorox Green Works, which manufactures cleaning products and household cleaning products: “it found the sweet spot of a target market wanting to take smaller steps toward a greener lifestyle and matched that with a green product with a very modest price premium and sold through a grassroots marketing program” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, pp. 82-83).
In the same way, “Walt Disney Corp. has pledged to reduce its solid waste by 2013, conserve millions of gallons of water, invest in renewable energy, and become completely carbon neutral (reaching 50 percent of that goal by 2012)” (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 83)
Finally, the green initiative is a global concern that needs the cooperation of all major companies in the planet, which must get over the single financial interests and work together to protect the planet, as the green partnership between Samsung and Microsoft to help create energy-efficient computers, regardless their rivalry on the market. (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 322)
Conclusions
The modern organizations must rethink the strategies they use to adapt their financial success to the environmental concern, allowing, for example, to focus their efforts to reduce the negative impacts on the planet by adding new variables to develop environmental products and processes under a sustainable basis to satisfy consumers and shareholders as well.
Current regulations and consumers’ pressures to ‘go green’ must be taken as an opportunity to adapt to new trends of the market and find solutions that allow organizations to compete while a growing acceptance of eco-friendly alternatives in business are emerging.
Saving the planet is not an option anymore, it is now a fact that has to be taken into account by all organizations. As a consequence, each company must carefully plan and execute its own strategy to go from NPD to GPD in order to avoid financial loss when green products are designed or commercialized. Some companies as Walt Disney Corp, Walmart, Nike, LG, among others, have understood the responsibility they have with the planet, by applying successful implementations of GPD to ‘go green’, as a result, they have obtained great financial numbers and consumers’ acceptance as a reward.
References
Belliveau, P., Griffin, A. & Somermeyer, S., 2002. The PDMA ToolBook 1 for New Product Development. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
Chen, C., 2001. Design for the environment: a quality-based model for green product development. Management Science, 47(2), pp. 250-263.
González-Benito, J. & González-Benito, Ó., 2006. A Review of Determinant Factors of Environmental Proactivity. Business Strategy and the Environment, Volume 15, pp. 87-102.
International Organization For Standardization (ISO), 1994. ISO 8402:1994 (E/F/R) Quality management and quality assurance - Vocabulary. 2 ed. Sidney: STANDARDS AUSTRALIA.
Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L., 2012. Marketing Management. 14 ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Ljungberg, L., 2007. Materials selection and design for development of sustainable products. Materials and Design, Issue 28, pp. 466-479.
McNulty, E., 2007. Is It Easy to Be Green? (or, the 5% Solution). [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2007/06/is-it-easy-to-be-green-or-the-1 [Accessed 30 11 2016].
Murthy, D., Rausand, M. & Østerås, T., 2008. Product Reliability Specification and Performance. 1 ed. London: Springer-Verlag London Limited .
Nidumolu, R. & Prahalad, C. R. M., 2009. WHY SUSTAINABILITY IS NOW THE KEY DRIVER OF INNOVATION. Harvard Business Review, 09.
Noel, H., 2009. Basics Marketing 01 Consumer Behaviour. Laussane: AVA Publishing SA.
Sullivan, E., 2008. Color Me Profitable. Marketing News, October.
Comments