The GoVacuum Blog

As companies search for greater product value in conjunction with eco-friendly practices, more are focusing on how to maintain a better life cycle standard for their materials. With the destruction of renewable resources that leads to the degradation of our environment, a greater number of businesses are looking for solid green strategies to turn the tide. While constantly searching for more sustainable materials, forward-moving companies are also paying attention to the management of their products from creation to ultimate reuse or recycling, where each step in development determines product viability in the increasingly eco-conscious marketplace.

Some very important inroads are being made thanks to the help of environmental innovators who are taking a “whole systems” approach, which means attention to the value chain as a product evolves. One company that is heeding their value chain is Starbucks, calling for a summit in May 2009 to research the feasibility of creating a 100% recyclable cup by 2012. The company brought in environmental and academic experts along with raw material suppliers, cup manufacturers, recyclers, and local government officials to discuss how the various segments of the cup value chain interconnect. With Peter Senge, PhD., author of The Fifth Discipline, the seminal book on systems thinking, presiding, the diverse group put their heads together to consider the evolutionary process of a new hot and cold cup, lid, and straw that embraces sustainability. Besides reviewing entire life cycle of these products and how it impacts the environment, the need for stronger packaging laws and greater recycling availability was also acknowledged.

With the direction to create more sustainable products mandated by such visible companies as Starbucks, more businesses will begin to pay attention to the life cycle and value chain of their materials. As they do, consumers will begin to see real change in how products fare in the marketplace as they reflect our environmentally aware choices on deeper levels. Additionally more companies will surface to take care of various steps required on the chain such as identifying materials for recycling or reuse, sorting them, compacting them, and delivering them to appropriate areas for processing. With more emphasis on these interconnections, more awareness and more jobs will develop as we begin to see a viable way to change our consumer habits and heal our planet.

-Michele Kadison