Chapter 5: Sustainable Product and process Development

Consumer demand for sustainable Products

Consumers are increasingly demanding sustainable products not only in the US but in other worldwide markets. In surveys of nine countries and interviews in seven Chinese cities, consumers were increasing their purchases of green products particularly if they were considered to be of higher quality. Additionally, the majority of these consumers want producers to provide full transparency, good environmental records, clarity on product risks and safety, information on environmental impact, high ethical standards, and fair employee treatment. The study also reported that executives at twenty leading consumer products companies agreed that the offering differentiated green products not only brought down the costs of their value chains but provided additional margins and market share particularly helpful with the current economic conditions and competitive markets. Green, ethical, and sustainable products present huge opportunities to innovative companies particularly those in the consumer categories of paper and packaged products, disposable home products, fresh meat and vegetables, and electronics and appliances. Other important growth categories include building products, sustainable energy production products, and energy and resource reduction technologies. Ingestible products such as food and beverages lead the pack in sustainable product category growth particularly because in many cases, sustainability has become synonymous with quality. In Europe for example, more than 75 percent of consumers make food purchases based on sustainability standards and 30 percent try a product for the first time based on its ethical value.

Given these trends, companies that focus on sustainability not only need to learn how to develop new products along these lines, but improve