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.