Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity

Chapter 18. Green design – clean environment or clean conscious?

Companies can minimise environmental impact by reviewing and adapting their corporate and marketing operations policies and strategies, and their management styles and training to integrate environmental expertise.

—Dermody and Hammer-Lloyd (1995)

Pressures on companies to become more environmentally conscious come from two sides. First there are increasingly tougher environmental regulations introduced by government; secondly, and perhaps more importantly, consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally aware. Concerns about global warming, food-related scandals and oil prices that have gone far beyond what seemed possible only four to five years ago, have motivated the consumer to questions around environmental impact and sustainability. In response to this external pressure organisations have increasingly started to emphasise the 'triple bottom line'. Rather than being just concerned about the profit (economic results), organisations are starting to consider their impact on people (human capital/social implications) and planet (environmental impact/issues of sustainability).

Organic – great idea, but . . .

You may recall that Iceland, the producer of frozen foods, announced a few years ago that all their products would be based on organic ingredients, at prices that would match non-organic foods. Their decision was driven by consumer demand and, I am sure, extensive consumer research that indicated that such a policy ...