Green Business strategies – SWOT of green business

Green business involves manufacturing of products that produce limited carbon footprints; they may require fewer resources to produce & consume less energy or emit fewer hazardous emissions. The products are manufactured through green technology and they do not cause environmental hazards

SWOT Analysis of Green business

Strengths of Green Business

• Environment friendly
• Better brand Image
• Increasing awareness among consumers
• Producer (Farmers) are benefited. Eg: ITC e-chaupal

Weaknesses in the SWOT analysis of Green Business

• Lack of awareness
• Middle men intervention
• Small players cannot promote their product
• Lack of regulations and guidance

Opportunities in the SWOT analysis of Green Business

• Reduce Reuse Recycle – reduces cost
• Effective value chain integration
• Companies adopt as marketing tool
• Reduce Risks

Threats in the SWOT analysis of Green Business

• Influence of external forces involved cannot be controlled
• Government influence
• ‘Green Washing’ – Act of misleading customers

Waste Management

Cost saving is the major factor in green business strategies; companies cut down costs by saving energy, recycling office paper, reduce flight journeys, fitting energy saving lights etc. RRR – Reduce Reuse & Recycle is the term used in waste management; here the companies involve reduction of the material usage, reuse the components which are considered to be waste and also recycle the products again.

The best example is ITC Wow “Wealth out of Waste”; the companies collect all sort of wastes from households on a weekly basis and then they sort and redistribute to respective units to be used for recycling. ITC class mate notebooks are ozone treated and elemental chlorine free; each paper can be recycled up to 7 times.

CSR

Companies engage themselves in CSR activities in order to claim them socially responsible citizen and also to build a positive brand image. The best example would be Coco-cola; its most significant ingredient is water. It has partnerships with WWF, US agency for International Development and Gates Foundation and involve in providing in safe & clean drinking water to communities nearby.

Value Chain Integration

The entire activities involved in the supply chain are called value chain process. Companies involve in forward or backward integration process to reduce the middle men intervention & risk from regular supply of raw materials respectively. ITC E-CHOUPAL is the best example of strategic CSR and backward integration process where the ITC directly procures from farmers for a fairer price and the intervention of middlemen is prohibited.

Spend on R&D to innovate green products

Companies spend a huge amount in R&D to produce green products and to make the world greener by their innovative technologies. R&D spends are critical for the success of green business strategies. GE’s “Ecomagination” is an initiative to produce products from innovative household appliances to get engines.

Green Marketing strategies

According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.

It incorporates a broad range of activities, including:

• Product modification/innovation
• Changes to the production process,
• Packaging changes
• Tailoring and modifying the advertising messages

Eco labelling

• Eco label is an environmental claim that appears on the packaging of a product.
• It is awarded to the manufacturer by an appropriate authority
• ISO 14020 is a guide to the award of Eco labels

ECO MARK

• To increase consumer awareness, the Government of India launched the eco-labeling scheme known as `Ecomark’ in 1991 for easy identification of environment-friendly products.
• The Ecomark label is awarded to consumer goods that meet the specified environmental criteria and the quality requirements of Indian Standards.

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