Environmental issue yet affect sales

Environmental issue yet affect sales

Rudijanto, Contributor, Jakarta

Established electronic home appliance producers continue to
invest heavily in media advertisements to tap a bigger part of
the country's growing home appliance market.

Newspapers, magazines and televisions have become the
battleground for different electronic home appliance companies to
win the heart of Indonesian consumers.

Look at what Polytron is doing with its aggressive media
promotion campaign. It has hired comedian Basuki as a spokesman
and is touting its technology and designs, for instance a
combination cool refrigerator and a compartment to keep food
warm.

Or see LG's media promotion for its new air conditioner Art
Cool, which shows various choices of esthetically designed
products. The company is also boosting the promotion for its
Icebeam Door Cooling refrigerator, which offers a cooling
solution for fully packed refrigerators.

Another electronics producer that focuses sharply on health
issues in its promotions is Sharp. The company is promoting its
plasma cluster technology in its air conditioners and
refrigerators. The plasma cluster promises cleaner and odorless
air with the use of the Plasmacluster Ion Generator.

For those consumers concerned with the environment, there
seems to be one aspect that is missing from all of these media
advertisements, namely the environmental aspect. None of the
major electronic producers have a message that tells customers
that their products are environmentally friendly.

LG Electronic Indonesia (LGEIN) national sales and marketing
manager Sung Khiun said the company was focusing on benefits for
consumers in its media advertisements, rather than on
environmentally friendly aspects.

"For instance, we know that many houses have refrigerators
that are full. Thus, we offer them our Icebeam Door Cooling
technology that enables the refrigerators to remain cool although
they are full," said Sung Khiun.

For him, environmentally friendly is not much of a selling
point, at least at the time being, among Indonesian consumers. He
has found that most consumers generally aren't concerned whether
a product is environmentally friendly.

"It is for this reason that we do not advertise the fact that
we received the ISO 14000 in 2000 because consumers will not pay
any attention to this achievement," said Sun Khiun.

The sales and marketing director of PT Sharp Yasonta Antarnusa
(Sharp), Jino Sugiarto, confirms this observation, saying that
most Indonesian consumers are not yet environmentally aware as
compared to those in Japan.

"In Japan, the use of recycled paper for business cards boosts
the company's image because, aside from being environmentally
friendly, its price is more expensive. But here I think the
environmentally friendly aspect has no selling point due to low
awareness of the people," Jino said.

He recalls that Sharp had a difficult time convincing
consumers to shift from CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) refrigerators
the more environmentally friendly non-CFC fridges.

Polytron factory head AL Purwanto says people are most
concerned with price. With the low awareness of the environment,
he also believes that environmentally friendly aspects are not a
selling point yet in the Indonesian market.

Indeed, electronic producers in the country should be grateful
for the low awareness of Indonesian consumers on the need to
protect the environment.

Some countries have a serious problem with electronic scraps,
which have become a serious problem to both health and the
environment. Some components in electronic products contain
hazardous materials, such as lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium.

Certainly there is no immediate danger for consumers to use
electronic products since these toxic materials do not pose
direct risks to them. But they can create environmental problems
if they are thrown away with other household garbage.

The U.S. National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center
released a report that revealed that consumer electronics
constituted 40 percent of lead found in landfills. The main
concern in regard to the presence of lead in landfills is the
potential for the lead to leach and contaminate drinking water
supplies.

Medical studies have found that lead can cause damage to the
central and peripheral nervous systems, blood systems and kidneys
in humans. Effects on the endocrine system have also been
observed and its negative effects on children's brain development
have been well documented.

Another hazardous substance found in electronic products is
mercury. It is estimated that 22 percent of the yearly world
consumption of mercury is used in electrical and electronic
equipment. Mercury is basically used in thermostats, relays and
switches and discharge lamps.

Those two examples of hazardous substances in electronic
products should alarm not only environmental activists but also
consumers in general since any careless handling of electronic
scraps could affect their health.

Again, electronic producers in this country are lucky with the
almost complete absence of pressure groups and environmentally
aware consumers. But since many of them also operate in overseas
markets, they cannot avoid this pressure completely.

Sharp, which exports 30 percent of its total production, has
made special efforts to comply with environmental requirements.

Sharp assistant manager for quality and reliability control
Baruno Aji said the company was implementing "Green Purchases" to
all of its suppliers.

"We have started Green Purchases here since early this year.
Under this program, we survey every component that we purchase
from suppliers in order to know and eliminate or reduce some
hazardous substances, including pb (lead), cd (cadmium)
biphenyls) and hg (mercury)," said Baruno.

Like Sharp, LGEIN has also stopped the use of PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls) that are not only dangerous for the
environment but also to humans. Sung Khiun said that LGEIN had
shifted to safer Phenol PCBs in its televisions as well as
refrigerators.

Polytron's AL Purwanto acknowledges that recycling electronic
waste is a difficult task due to the existence of metal, gas and
polymer elements. But as an electronic producer, he said that
Polytron was certainly thinking of how to recycle the waste.

Certainly, manufacturing and selling electronic products is
easier than taking the responsibility for recycling or, at least,
neutralizing hazardous substances from electronic scraps.

However, only if the producers take the environmentally
friendly aspect seriously will they have credibility in telling
consumers that their products benefit their customers' health not
only in the short run but also in the long run.

A simple trade-in program that promises discounts for
consumers who want to purchase new products may help producers to
control the recycling and neutralizing of hazardous substances
from electronic scraps.

In the meantime, we must give a thumbs-up to most of the
producers, particularly Sharp and LG, that have already acquired
ISO 14000 and other documents certifying the proven quality and
safety of their products.