Operations and Sustainability Flashcards

Question

What is "B" Corps?

Answer 1

A certification issued to sustainable for-profit businesses that meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency

Answer 2

It is a different take on the traditional BMC: the thinking is that if you were really running a sustainable company, this canvas is more similar to what your BMC would look like because you would want to be continually improving and contributing to society

Answer 3

1. Product design 2. Product stewardship 3. Sustainability through servicing 4. Sustainability of the supply chain

Answer 4

1. Cradle to Cradle | 2. Biomimicry

Answer 5

Cradle to Grave is when you take, make, and waste materials, and is a very linear design. Cradle to Cradle is a new approach to producing goods by taking inspiration from nature's cycles. In the Cradle to Cradle design, there is essentially no waste because the materials get reused to form a new product in all three areas: Nutrients (biological nutrients and technical nutrients), Outputs (every output is safe and beneficial), and Waste (turning old products into new products)

Answer 6

Biomimicry is when people are inspired by the engineering of nature, and mimic the natural environment.

Answer 7

1. Wind turbine blades have bumps on their leading edges which increased their effectiveness and efficiency: this idea was inspired by humpbacked whales' fins. 2. Japan's bullet train made a sonic boom every time it exited a tunnel because of its high speed and changing air pressure. Japan's strict noise laws meant that this needed to change. The chief engineer noticed that the kingfisher was a bird with a long narrow beak that dives into the water to catch fish and produces almost no splash compared to similar sized animals. The engineer applied this concept to the train and making its nose longer and thinner. They were able to save energy, move faster, and product much less noise. 3. Velcro: a scientist was out walking with his dog and the burrs got attached to its fur. Found that interesting, studied it and how it sticks to things, found that there were tiny little hooks on the burrs. He mimicked nature and come up with the Velcro design

Answer 8

1. Sunchips: made the compostable bag, a bag that could decompose in nature. It was launched and introduced, but then it was pulled off the shelf because the process of making it biodegradable made the bag really noisy 2. NIKE reuse-a-shoe: the technical nutrients of their older shoes go into producing higher value new products 3. Adidas + Parley: make shoes out of plastic bottles; they take the waste of lower quality products and produce a higher quality product

Answer 9

1. Being green in valuable, but not critical (not high on the priority list) 2. Green products need to be affordable (marketer's haven't been focused on WHY it's more expensive) 3. Green reputations are build on products, operations, and labels (has to be a holistic product - the packaging has to match the image) 4. Advertising is a helpful source of information (customers want to know your story)

Answer 10

When your company maintains responsibility for what happens to the product throughout its life; as it's produced, as it's used, and at the end of its life

Answer 11

Extended producer responsibility

Answer 12

Strawberry and other berry packaging has been a big controversy; only a specific type of plastic is fully recyclable, and it's hard to tell what kind it is

Answer 13

When the consumer pays to use the product, instead of paying for and owning the product itself. In effect, it's buying services

Answer 14

Paying for printing instead of buying your own printer

Answer 15

1. More intangible 2. More customized 3. Harder to copy - competitive advantage

Answer 16

Xerox: In the 70's and 80's they were making bigger and faster photocopiers, but people started wanted to reduce paper use. When they looked that their customers, Xerox found that it was mostly people who had to hold onto their documents for a long time that were buying their products (lawyers, educators, etc.). They decided to give consulting services and advice on handling and storing those documents instead of just producing bigger and faster photocopiers, which was much more valuable to those customers

Answer 17

A network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products, and deliver the products to customers through a distribution system

Answer 18

The management of raw materials and services from suppliers to manufacturer/service provider to customer and back with improvement of the social and environmental impacts explicitly considered

Answer 19

Outsourcing business operations doesn't mean outsourcing responsibilities or risks: sustainable supply chain management is key to the integrity of the brand. You have to remember that you are still connected to your outsourcing company; you have to be aware of how that company operates. Your brand/reputation is only as strong as the weakest link in your chain. You have to be aware of ALL of the companies who are being outsourced to, including those after your direct outsourcing companies

Answer 20

1. Walmart: they have had really good connections and efficiency with their supply chain, and are also looking really explicitly at the environmental nature of the supply chain. Eg. the secret life of sour cream: worked with the dairy farmers to create the methane digester, which converts the methane released from cow manure into electricity 2. Timberland: the boots are designed for dissembled, so 80% of the parts can be reused or recycled, it's parts are made from recycled and/or organic materials

Answer 21

The act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental benefits of a product or service

Answer 22

Make sure that people know about what you are doing to help the environment, but don't exaggerate how green your products are

Answer 23

Your customers won't trust you anymore, and they will stop buying your products. Then other companies don't see an incentive to make similar products because they customers aren't buying them, even though it's because of the greenwashing and not the product itself. After that there are fewer green products available, so customers don't feel that they have those options and they don't buy other green products either

Answer 24

1. Hidden trade-off 2. No proof 3. Vagueness 4. Irrelevance 5. Fibbing 6. Lesser of two evils 7. Worshipping false labels

Answer 25

Suggesting a product is "green' based on a very narrow set of attributes. Eg. paper might come from a sustainably harvested forest, but might not take other environmental issues into account

Answer 26

An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by a third party or by easily accessible information.

Answer 27

When companies use terms that are poorly defined or very broad to mislead consumers

Answer 28

When products display information that is unimportant or unhelpful in order to sway consumers into purchasing their products. Eg. insecticides, lubricants, and disinfectants label their products "CFC-Free" when CFCs have been banned for decades

Answer 29

When companies argue that their product is more environmentally sustainable than other products in the same category, which distracts the consumer from the general sustainability of the entire product category

Answer 30

When companies make false claims (that their products meet certain criteria, for example)

Answer 31

When products allude to a third party endorsement where no such endorsement exists (i.e. for being green, for being organic, etc.)

Answer 32

Ikea incorporates all three strategies for good green marketing

Answer 33

1. Be self-honest about the whole, lifecycle-based, environmental impacts of your product. Acknowledge them and address them one step at a time 2. Make, claim, and ask your customers to support stepwise progress. But don't overstate your progress 3. Ask your customers to join you on a journey to ever more sustainable products