Sun, Jun 13, 2010 page12

• Sustainability takes over the business world with buyers’ support

  Incorporating environmentally responsible practices into product design is no longer limited to high-end sellers, as big-box retailers like Wal-Mart join the fray

  • By Sindya N. bhanoo / NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  As the world’s greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Thailand.

  It is, if nothing else, good publicity for Nike, the maker of the jerseys and the official sponsor of nine teams, including the US, Brazil and Portugal.

  Yet what many might view as a gimmick is also part of a broadening effort by the company to incorporate “sustainability,” or environmentally responsible practices into its product design. Around the globe, a growing number of manufacturers are including more recyclable or biodegradable components into products.

  Companies making changes run the gamut from furniture makers to carpet manufacturers to clothing retailers and makers of shampoos and household cleaners. And with big-box retailers like Wal-Mart joining the fray, industry analysts say the sustainable philosophy is no longer viewed as the province of high-end sellers like Nike or Herman Miller, the furniture maker.

  In 2008 alone, US consumers doubled their spending on sustainable products and services to an estimated US$500 billion, according to a survey by Penn Schoen Berland Associates that polled more than 1,000 people.

  The movement can be confusing to navigate and goes by many monikers — “Cradle to Cradle,” eco-efficiency, life cycle improvement, closed loop production. In its most utopian form, it envisions a world in which all products are made from natural materials and are 100 percent reusable, recyclable or biodegradable.

  At its most pragmatic, it is mainly about cutting costs — by reducing waste, selling recyclable components and reusing byproducts like rubber or plastic to create a new product. For a large company, this can mean millions of dollars in annual savings.

  “When sustainability burst onto the scene, it was in the responsibility category, something that a company should do because it was the right thing to do,” said Beth Lester, a vice president at Penn Schoen Berland Associates, a market research firm that studies the green economy.

  But now it is equally about saving money, she said.

  For example, Wal-Mart attributed more than US$100 million of its revenue last year to a decision to switch to a recyclable variety of cardboard in shipments to its 4,300-plus stories in the US. Now it sells the cardboard to a recycler rather than paying to ship the waste to a landfill.

  The company also sells photo frames made from its polystyrene waste and uses plastic cut-outs from the legs of Walmart-brand diapers to make baseboards for walls in its stores.

  “It’s coming from economics,” said Marc Stoiber, vice president for green innovation at the Chicago-based business consultancy Maddock Douglas. “If you look at the big guys like Wal-Mart, they embrace green because it’s all about efficiency.”

  Matt Kistler, the senior vice president of sustainability at Wal-Mart, agreed.

  “If this was not financially viable, a company such as ours would not be doing it,” he said.

  In its most ambitious project, Wal-Mart has embarked on a yearlong effort to tag every product it sells with information about its production and life cycle after surveying more than 100,000 suppliers worldwide.

  Nike first dipped its toe into sustainability in 1993, when it began grinding up old shoes and donating the material and other manufacturing scraps to builders of sports surfaces, like tracks and basketball courts. That program continues, but the company has shifted gradually from one-off initiatives to a long-term plan to “minimize or eliminate all substances known to be harmful to the health of biological or ecological systems.”

  In the past four years, the company’s sustainable design group, known as Nike Considered Design has brought shoes and athletic clothing to market that incorporate waste from the factory floor and a less toxic type of rubber. Some of Nike’s clothing incorporates zippers and cords made from old shoes.

  The company has also reduced its use of solvents, the toxic glue used to cement soles to the bottom of shoes.

  “Our customers expect this from us,” said Lorrie Vogel, general manager of Nike’s Considered group. “It’s not about two or three green shoes — it’s about changing the way our company does things in general.”

  As companies move to reduce waste and analyze the components of their products, many are turning to outside consultants for help. Among the most prominent is William McDonough, co-author of a 2002 book called Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

  He runs a consultancy that evaluates companies’ policies in areas like toxicity, renewable energy, water stewardship and recyclability and awards corporations Cradle to Cradle Certification if they make the necessary changes.

  His firm, McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, has worked with Nike, Hermann Miller, and Shaw, the world’s largest carpet maker. Herman Miller says that 50 percent of its revenue now comes from products that are Cradle to Cradle-compliant, and it is aiming for 100 percent.
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