Trade journal Advertising Age suggests that consumers may have had it up to here with corporate hype about going green. “The Columbia Journalism Review in June reported that the press has moved from “environmental exigency to exhaustion.” Advertising Age (Aug. 19, 2008)
The Los Angeles City Council voted yesterday to ban the use of plastic bags in the city’s retail stores, beginning in July 2010. The decision follows a similar move by northern neigbhor San Francisco and may foreshadow a statewide measure under consideration in the California legislature. Drug Store News (July 23, 2008) The Guardian (UK) [...]
Direct markeitng companies, including giants such as Microsoft and Washington Mutual, have formed a trade group called the Green Marketing Coalition to exchange ideas about sustainability and promote the adoption of best practices in direct mail. The U.S. Postal Service too is promoting list hygeine and other environmentally-friendly measures. Although some critics argue that the guidelines from [...]
July 22, 2008 — Wal-Mart called for rigorous, “bottom up” distribution practices as a key means of achieving its 50-percent efficiency goal for the magazine category in a memorandum sent to single copy supply chain partners last Friday. The memo appears in its entirety below.
Â
To: All National Distributors and Publishers
From Christy Jenkins
Subject: Magazine Bottom Up [...]
When the trucks go into service throughout the U.S. and Canada later this summer, Coca-Cola Enterprises will have the largest hybrid truck fleet in North America. The per-vehicle cost is $85, 000 – higher than non-hybrid alternatives – but each one will produce 37 percent fewer emissions and use 32 percent less fuel than a standard delivery truck. [...]
Although the industry’s sales, still going up, amounted to $16.8 billion in the U.S. last year, there is evidence that tap is the new chic in water. Thrifty consumers are buying re-usable containers. Nestle now produces half-liter bottles in an “eco-shape” that contains 30 percent less plastic than the average bottle. And, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the [...]
With a one-liter bottle of its beverages requiring 2.5 liters of water to produce, and with surging demand in developing countries with increasing awareness about water scarcity (like China), Coca-Cola has made becoming “water-neutral” a key “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) goal. Time (June 12, 2008)
Starting May 9, The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. will credit customers five cents for each bag they bring to its stores and is used to pack their groceries. In a separate bit of “green news,” the retailer has announced a joint promotion with General Mills, Inc. During the week that began last Friday, customers who purchase $15 worth [...]
Research by Nielsen Co. shows that more than half of U.S. consumers are willing to give up packaging conveniences — like easier transport and re-sealable containers — in order to gain environmental benefits. They’re much less willing to accept environmental compromises that affect food freshness, quality or safety, however. Progressive Grocer (Mar. 3, 2008)
The Honest Kitchen, a small pet food maker, hired a packaging consultant to help create a new flexible-barrier, biodegradable bag – at an additional cost of $2.00 per unit. An e-commerce vendor who couldn’t afford the upgrade to recyclable shipping boxes instead switched to heavier, non-recyclable boxes and inserted a notice with ideas for re-use in each order. Entrepreneur.com via MSNBC.com (Feb. 18, [...]