Title: Consumption: Reducing, Reusing and Recycling Some Research Derived Insights ESRC Centre for Business
1Consumption Reducing,Reusing and Recycling
Some Research Derived InsightsESRC Centre for
Business Relationships, Accountability,
Sustainability and Society
- Professor Ken Peattie, Director
2BRASSWho we are and what we do
- ESRC funded Interdisciplinary Research Centre
- Other funding from Defra, DTI, EA, Landfill Tax,
UNEP, EU, Local Government, WAG, business and
others - Began late 2001, now 35 full time and part time
staff - Research Areas include
- Automotive - CSR
- Electronics - Food
- Measuring Sustainability - Regulation and
Governance - Reporting Sustainability - Sustainable
Communities - Waste - Mining
- Social Enterprise
- Social Marketing
- Sustainable Consumption and Production
- Sustainability Education
3Three projects
- Many BRASS projects link to material reduction in
production and consumption. Three projects
refered to today - Reduce Social marketing for sustainable
lifestyles - Reuse The promotion of reverse manufacturing in
response to ELV Directive - Recyle The Cardiff Waste
Trial Evaluation project
4Social Marketing for Sustainable Lifestyles
- Attempts to promote green markets and consumer
choices have done little to deliver more
sustainable consumption - A number of consumer behaviours need to change
(ie reduce) re food, travel, energy use
durables replacement. - How can a consume less and/or more responsibly
agenda compete with the Western industrialised
vision of consumer heaven which is marketed to us
? - How do we promote greener lifestyles ?
5Social Marketing Defined
Kotler et al.
(2002)
6Continuum of Interventions
Unaware/ Considering Change/ Maintaining
Behavior Education/ Communication
Aware/ Not Considering Change Markets
Marketing Social Marketing
Entrenched/ No Desire to Change Law
7Social Marketing - Key Features
- Can involve demarketing of a behaviour or
product, or the promotion of a behaviour or
product (usually in health to date) - Has its own marketing mix based on
- propositions not products
- accessibility (to information, solutions,
alternatives) rather than place - social communication rather than promotion (ie
2-way, not 1-way interaction) - cost of involvement rather than price, to
understand total transaction costs
8Why Does a Marketing Perspective Help ?
- Focus on segmenting different types of potential
targets to receive a customised offering/message - Focus on the perceived personal relevance of the
issue - Focus on communicating personal efficacy
- Focus on building a relationship with the target
- Focus on a broad integrated approach to
stakeholders and communication - Promotes ideas such as image, positioning,
competition, market research, - Marketers are the lifestyle experts, and many
key issues depend on integrating with peoples
lifestyles
9Automotive Remanufacture
- EU End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive, made car
producers responsible for ELV so that from 2006,
85 of an average cars weight must be reused,
recovered or recycled - Requires a radical rethink of markets and the
creation of non-linear supply loops or
closed-loop networks where the post-use product
flows back from the consumer to the manufacturer - Major policy-driven challenge for car firms
10The Project.
- 5 months embedding of a researcher within
Mercedes-Benz operation in Germany - Involved 3 supply chain levels
- Remanufacturing plant,
- Logistics distribution centre,
- Administrative centre (HQ)
- 64 interviews observation and business process
mapping - Aim to understand technical, logistical and
management challenges of supply loops.
11Closing the Automotive Supply Chain Loop through
Engine Remanufacture
12Key Lessons
- Remanufacturing reverse logistics proved
feasible and cost effective - Product proliferation created problems
- Competition for skills, parts, investment and
management time was fierce - Customer relationship management dimensions
underestimated - Significant differences to conventional
manufacturing - Key loop that needed to be closed was actually in
management thinking
13Electronics BRASS WEEE Survey
UK Survey of Business 53 of over 200 businesses
feel that WEEE regulations are unlikely to result
in preventing household electronic waste
this just means that LAs will have to deal with
increasing amounts of these difficult to
segregate wastes
14Cardiff Waste Trial Evaluation
- Cardiffs recycling rate Jan 2005 14.2
- Targets 25 by 2006/7 40 by 2009/10
- Questionnaire on all aspects of household waste
management behaviour and attitudes sent to 5000
households in 4 wards - A - recycling for nearly 2 years
- B - recycling for 6 months
- C - recycling scheme is about to begin
- D - is a control area, no kerbside service
15Key Aims
- Examine how waste is managed within households
- Identify the factors affecting purchasing
behaviours and how waste is managed within
households - Understand purchasing behaviours within
households and the relationship this has to waste
creation - Gain feedback from householders on the
effectiveness of Cardiff County Councils
recycling scheme in their area - Determine the most effective ways to engage
householders to both recycle and minimise their
waste.
16Swimming Against the Tide ? UK Trends in
Household Waste
17Key Findings
- Kerbside recycling dramatically lifted rates
- Despite a high policy priority (in theory) waste
minimisation paid less attention than recycling
by public policy-makers - Some active attempts at reduction (junk mail,
plastic bags) - Although limited, household waste minimisation
activities were commonest amongst active
recyclers - Feelings of powerlessness were a barrier
18Conclusions
- Amongst individuals and organisations success in
implementing 3R strategies depends as much on
behavioural factors/barriers as on
cost/convenience/infrastructure factors - Tendency to view 3R behaviour as a separate or
add-on aspect, rather than as a facet of a
holistic consumption and/or production system - Future success will depend upon the effective
marketing of concepts like SD, consumption
reduction, and recycling/reuse.