JP/16/GREEN

JP/16/GREEN

Martani Huseini
The Jakarta Post
Contributor

Green movements, products
and marketing strategies

Two major issues pose a serious challenge in this era of free
trade: globalization and sustainable socioeconomic development.

Jeffrey Sachs, an expert in policy studies, stated that there
were still mysteries in the globalization process, and several
important questions still remained to be answered.

Would globalization be able to jack up and stabilize the world
economy? Could it improve the income growth of people in each and
every nation and thereby reduce the disparity between nations?
Would it solve conflicts between nations or those within their
communities?

Sustainable socioeconomic development also carries with it a
question. Does support for the environment serve as an anchor so
that such development remains truly sustainable?

Underlying these two issues are some of the most basic
problems that urgently need to be taken care of now: establishing
living standards and their possible enhancement without damaging
the ecosystem, the reduction of conflicts between nations and
within societies and the stabilization of the world economy.

Using more popular terminology, these issues are often
referred to as "increasing human and social capital for the
global community".

Within the context of sustainability many green movements have
emerged, such as Greenpeace, WWF, Walhi and the Indonesian
Forestry Community (MPI). They tirelessly embark on preservation
campaigns for the benefit of the current and future ecosystem.

Similarly, veteran movie star Brigitte Bardot and some groups
of animal-lovers appear to unceasingly attack companies that use
animals on which to test objects.

On the other hand, many firms use sustainability as a business
opportunity. Bodyshop, for example, started producing a number of
so-termed green products, which are currently available in 76
countries, using a green marketing strategy targeted toward green
consumers, as can be seen in the sensational advertising slogan,
"Against Animal Testing."

This strategy was extraordinarily well received and has
produced a fantastic financial return for the company over the
past few years.

Very similar to this is what Indonesia's producer of bottled
water, PT Golden Mississippi, did through its advertising
campaign by showing the techniques involved in recycling its
bottles.

In Indonesia's banking sector, the green marketing strategy
has been implemented by BII, whose cards depict images of rare
fauna. This company also has a discount policy for contributions
made to Indonesia's conservation organizations.

It seems that quite a number of local, as well as
international, businesses are based on the "friendly environment"
theme, leading them toward the attainment of the international
ISO 14000 standard.

Within the hotel business, a green marketing strategy has been
adopted by placing leaflets in bedrooms on the thrifty usage of
water, towels, air-conditioners and so forth, which in essence
creates a better awareness about energy saving and a concern to
preserve the environment.

On top of that, in certain companies there are real efforts
being made in the thrifty usage of stationery and electricity by
applying the "4-R" approach: reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery.
This concept is directly related to industries using natural
resources that are difficult to renew.

Those in agreement with this concept believe that companies
that pay little heed to zero emissions, pollution prevention,
ecolabelling and other environmentally related matters will
sooner or later lose their customers, because the demands made by
"green consumers" are getting stronger every day.

Will the use of the "friendly environment" concept create a
new burden for corporate organizations and deplete their
competitiveness?

An expert on business strategy, and the initiator of the
"learning organization" concept, Peter Senge, explains the need
for a balance between the three pillars of competitiveness in any
organization: rationalistic, humanistic and naturalistic. A
sustained competitive advantage can only come from a balance
between all three aspects.

In the coming era it is likely more success stories will be
written like those of Bodyshop, Amway, PT Golden Mississippi and
BII due to their use of a green marketing strategy, which has
created better and sustainable performance. It has also been
proven that the currently popular green movement is no longer a
threat to business.