The Wheel
The Ecobusiness Newsletter
Vol. 2 No. 1, February, 1996
BUSINESS TAKES A POSITIVE
Can you guess which organisation lists this as one of its major objectives: "For commerce and environmental restoration to become synonymous."? An ecological or conservationist group? The MFP? A government environmental agency"?
ENVIRONMENTAL STANCEActually, its none of these. This splendid objective forms one of the principles which guides Brisbane-based Positive Australia Pty Ltd, a successful Australian company in the competitive and hard-nosed fashion industry.
Positive Australia, run by husband-and-wife team Steven Hein and Katie Pye, manufacturers and markets a range of leisure clothing which emphasises the use of natural or recycled fibres.
Traditional natural clothing fabrics such as cotton, wool, hemp and linen, together with Eco-spun - a garment fibre produced from recycled PET soft drink bottles- are used to make clothes ranging from casual wear to beach wear.
Manufacturing processes also show the same respect for the environment by conforming to guidelines which break new ground for the clothing sector (see article below).
"We are committed to keeping the balance between environmental and commercial considerations so that the product can offer the best possible total value to the retailer and consumer," said Steven.
"Our goal is to keep researching and moving towards processes which have the least environmental impact in energy usage, chemical usage and processing."
"By processing steadily towards our goal, whilst at the same time producing a commercial product, we can eventually influence the production processes all the way down the line. Many small steps can eventually achieve big results," he added.
Positive Australia was formed in 1987, but Steven's experience in the industry goes back to the early 1970s, when he started developing a range of good, affordable clothing from India. He continued to work in the industry as an agent for well-known Australian labels and developed a range of print designs for resort clothing which are now sold internationally under licence.
He also married Katie Pye, a well-known and truly original designer. Her fervent dedication to style, quality and good design has combined with Steven's business acumen, and a shared belief in environmental action, to create Positive Australia.
"Positive Guidelines For Eco-Active Manufacturing"
Positive Australia list these guidelines on its promotional literature:
- - Save Energy
- - Use oxygen bleaches (and minimum bleaching)
- - Avoid harmful chemicals
- - Create minimum effluent
- - Use nature friendly dyes and inks
- - Use minimum water
- - Use biodegradable, phosphate and alkali-free detergents
- - Use recycled water and heat
- - No stone washing
- - Use natural finishes - formaldehyde free resources
- - Use fibres which are renewable
- - Use 75% less salt in dyeing
Bradford's "Best" Practice
Only two years after its establishment, A Business and Environment service run by municipal authorities in the northern England city of Bradford has achieved remarkable progress.
Sets New Municipal StandardsIn the process, it is creating a model which could be followed by governments anywhere in the world- local authorities please note.
Bradford - population around 300,000 - has many of the problems common to cities in the developed world, including old, run-down manufacturing base with a legacy of environmental degradation.
In 1994, the City Council established BEST - the Business and Environmental Support Team - to provide a free practical environmental service for businesses in the metropolitan area.
According to Environmental Business Support Officer Mark Shayler, BEST was a response to changing attitudes to the environment.
"These changes have created a range of pressures and opportunities for business," he said. For example, legislation has increased in volume and complexity, environmental costs are escalating and supply chain pressure is being applied. At the same time, positive environmental action can lead to improved business performance, cost savings and access to new markets."
"BEST was established to help companies in our city overcome barriers to environmental action."
Practical business support provided to local firms ranges from advice on reducing environmental impacts to specific advice and funding for a variety of worthwhile projects such as effluent treatment or rehabilitation of contaminated land.
Training is also a priority. BEST has organised environmental policy courses for training providers and is planning to extend these into specific industry sectors, as well as developing a range of other training initiatives.
BEST runs a comprehensive Environmental Information Service for business, with extensive information available on a range of environment-related topics.
Newsletters are produced three times a year, with each issue featuring a specific environmental issue (e.g. design and packaging), case studies, legislative updates and calendars of events. The newsletters are widely distributed to businesses in Bradford.
A Quality and the Environment Fund makes cash awards to firms which make substantial improvements to the environmental efficiency or quality of their processes and products.
What Does It Do?
The BEST program operates in the following areas:
Environmental Business Support
Practical on-site environmental assistance
Fifty per cent funding for most types of environmental consultancy, including:
- -environmental review and audits
- -assistance with Standards and other environmental management systems
- -energy and water efficiency audits
- -waste minimisation studies
- -contaminated land audits
- -environmental design projects
- -environmental monitoring
Assistance with environmental policies
Advice on capital awards and loans
Environmental Information Service
- - European and UK legislation
- - Environmental standards and eco-labels
- - New marketing opportunities and partners
- - Identification of funding opportunities
- - Clean production technical information
- - Recycling outlets
- - Environmental products and firms
Ecobusiness Consultants has more information on Bradford's BEST project for anyone interested. Just contact our office on (08) 211 8171 and ask for Lou de Leeuw.
(E-mail :ecobiz@light.iinet.net.au )
We can also provide direct personal contact with the BEST team.
Is There Really a Substantial Market
One of the key issues confronting small business in relation to the environment is the simple question of the bottom line: Will improving our environmental performance provide us with a competitive advantage?
For Green Products?Other questions, such as those relating to social responsibility, are relevant to the small business sector too, but they tend to take second place when the business owners' houses and savings are on the line.
Well, small business owners can take courage. There is increasing evidence that environmental issues are capturing the hearts and mind of the wider Australian community.
One compelling piece of evidence is the election battle which is raging as this edition of "The Wheel" goes to press. Seldom have environmental issues seemed so critical to an election outcome - and that is proof of the way in which ecological awareness has penetrated mainstream Australian thinking.
Another piece of evidence is more quantitative. The Age recently reported on a study of 1200 urban adults in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane which showed that most people want to buy more green products than are available, exploding the belief that the market for such items is a specialised one.
The research as carried out for a private sector consortium to see whether concern about the environment - which opinion polls show is widespread (to see chart,
E-mail :ecobiz@light.iinet.net.au) - is actually translating into changes in behaviour or shopping patterns by consumers.The resulting report, "A Map of the Australian Green Market", showed that half the city dwellers have made changes to the way they behave for the sake of the environment.
According to The Age, 60% of respondents told the reporter author Mr David Said that they recycled materials ta home, conserved water and bought green products including energy-saving appliances.
They were keen to use new environmentally friendly products and would pay a premium for them. Shoppers were concerned about packaging, with 38% saying they would prefer recyclable packaging for favourite brands.
The green concerns cut across socio-economic groupings. The report divided the populations into six categories by their responses to green issues, with the two most environmentally-conscious categories accounting for 49% of the target group.
Figures Hide The Bottom Line
Lou's View - By Chief Executive, Lou de Leeuw
The last thing you want when reading an article or book is to come across a mass of impenetrable figures illustrating a point.It's frustrating and distracting to have to reach for a calculator to understand the argument being put forward, or worse still to see if the figures are right or comparing apples with oranges.
Paul Hawken in his book "The Ecology of Commerce" faces the dilemma in making a valid point that sustainable business will replace nationally or internationally produced items with products created locally or regionally - a challenging idea at the best of times, especially with exports being touted as the future of the economy. But how do you actually prove this in a way people will understand?
Hawken used the example of buying a name brand all purpose cleaner in a "disposable" plastic bottle with a trigger spray, compared to a concentrated cleaner from a bulk supply, poured into a refillable container.
He gives all the costings, but you really need that calculator to make sense of it all, so I'll briefly summarise and give you the result:If a community uses 10,000 bottles of name-brand cleaner and spends $30,000 buying them from the local supermarket, just $5,700 stays in the community.
But if the community goes another way - the supermarket buys a drum of concentrated cleaner for people to fill their own bottles - the community's outlay is just $10,900, of which $4,650 stays in the community.
Add the $19,100 saving and you'll see that the community keeps $23,750 in this scenario, compared to that measly $5,700.
In addition, there are other real and obvious environmental benefits: savings in energy, fuel, transport infrastructure, not to mention those 10,000 "disposable" bottles and all the cardboard cartons they're packed in.
By reducing or eliminating these packaging and distribution costs, a community cuts the amount of capital it exports. This in turn can create more local jobs, provide additional funds for investment, reduce the impact on the environment and conserve resources.
It's a simple but compelling message - pity it's so often obscured by forests of figures.
Dick's Daughters
"Dick was a man far ahead of his time in recycling and other sound environmental habits. It's a wonderful shed. A lifetime's collection of skills and knowledge have been condensed into a practical order that is at once systematic yet agreeably casual: "Tools clustered together on a rack made with a few artful twists of wire: Latches, handles and hinges made from carefully cut and soldered metal wire. There's no waste here."This is an extract from the book " Blokes and Sheds" by Mark Thompson , Angus and Robertson, 1995.
There is a photo of the shed inherited by Dicks daughters, but we have not been able to secure the electronic right, so for a copy , please contact Ecobusiness consultants (08) 8211 8171 or
E-mail :ecobiz@light.iinet.net.au
The Wheel is published by :
Ecobusiness Consultants,
193 Victoria Square, Adelaide, South Australia 5000Telephone+61+(08) 8211 8171 Facsimile +61(08) 8212 6170
E-mail :ecobiz@ecobusiness.com.au
