This entry was posted on Sunday, September 27th, 2009 at 7:03 am and is filed under environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Turning our way of life upside down
ermit of “Muppet Show” fame had no idea of the power and poignancy of his, “It’s not easy being green”, phrase.
Nowadays, it’s taken on new meaning as households and businesses alike have taken up the challenge of “green”.
Whilst some may argue about the raison d’etre for such a push, at the most basic level it’s just plain good sense in a business if you can create greater value using less resources. And with respect to reducing our reliance on petroleum based energy sources it’s a matter of damn good sense.
In our personal lives it’s much the same.
The task of is one of the most challenging to confront the modern day entrepreneur. Namely, it’s essential to keep a foot in both camps - conventional and green. To maintain cost structures that allows you to compete on price, to create genuine product with “green” attributes that are valued in the market place – and to make that very same product at a price that is competitive because the vast majority of businesses and consumers are NOT prepared to pay more.
There are examples out there where the seemingly impossible is being brought together to manufacture eco-friendly safety signs at keenly competitive prices. Being “green” does incur some extra costs but those costs can easily be absorbed where you completely re-jig the manufacturing process using just in time and lean manufacturing processes.
Another example can be found with fridge magnets. This time, custom, made to order and used for promoting your organisations, message, logo, offer or latest idea, they tend to have the habit of hanging around for aeons.
So, using the latest in digital technology these magnets are being printed using solar electricity generated in situ. And other processes are being finished using brawn and muscle as lower impact solutions are rising to prominence.
It’s the Holy Grail of green - to be green and do it at a price point that is competitive with conventional product. There are some out there that are doing this and there will be more and more as the sensibility sinks in of adapting manufacturing processes so they are of lower energy intensity – “greener”.
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