Lend your voice to the call for ingredient disclosure.
Champion local bottle bills, recycling incentivizing legislation, and initiatives to require comprehensive testing
of chemical hazards in consumer products. Learn about
the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition at
www.saferchemicals.org.
(continued from page 25)
The Big Picture
The Plastics
Scorecard is not a
substitute for a
product Life Cycle
Assessment. The
scorecard’s focus
on the sustainability of various plastics is one
important part of
the cradle-to-grave
analysis of a product. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an examination of the environmental
and energy impacts of the raw material production, manufacturing, distribution, packaging, use, transport and disposal of a product. A company may find through LCA that
the greatest environmental packaging gain comes from
concentrating the product, selling a larger quantity per
package, or switching to refillable containers. While improvements to the plastic you use now are crucial, do not
neglect a big-picture analysis that can help you ensure that
you have the most beneficial overall packaging for your
products. ;
Seventh Generation worked with
its supplier to create its new 90
percent PCR bottles.
Tim Greiner is managing partner and
Tara Gallagher is sustainability strate-
gist with Pure Strategies (www.pure-
strategies.com). Pure Strategies
provides leadership to help organiza-
tions improve their environmental and social performance through
cleaner production, sustainable materials, strong community rela-
tionships and transparent measures of progress. You can reach them
at tgreiner@purestrategies.com and tgallagher@purestrategies.com.
For More Information:
• To comment on the beta version of the Plastics Scorecard
or to learn more, go to www.cleanproduction.org.
• To receive a copy of the Plastics Scorecard, send an email
to info@purestrategies.com
• For protocols to help design materials for greater
recyclability: www.plasticsrecycling.org
• For general information: www.sustainablepackaging.org
• To help combat marine plastic pollution:
www.oceanconservancy.org
do. It also pays the bills, is generally less risky and doesn’t require as many resources as brand-building product development does. Examples include:
• New Products/Existing Categories. A new cereal variety
is introduced by a cereal company.
• Line Extensions/Existing Products. A three-cheese pizza
is added to an existing line of pizzas.
• Private-Label Manufacturing. A nutrition bar company
has excess production capacity and a retailer decides to
create a private-label line of breakfast bars. The nutrition
bar company manufactures it for them.
• Existing Products/Reformulated. Almost anything that
has improved flavor, dissolves easier or is brighter, whiter,
etc., without having any real technological advantage.
Growing Your Brand (continued from page 33)
Secrets of Strong Brands
Strong brands are value-centered and often created by visionaries, or at least by hardheaded entrepreneurs obsessed
by their unique vision and beliefs. These brands grow by creating a common cause with their customers and providing
them with unique products. But the question remains, what
sustains these companies over many years? What are the
hallmarks of organic enterprises that remain vibrant, creative and relevant
Have a defined mission beyond commercial success. This
is the source of the brand’s loyalty and the focus and passion
of its stakeholders. Every significant decision the company
makes gets filtered through this screen daily. Jeremy Black
and his partners at Sambazon brought açaí to the U.S., but
their real interest was in forming partnerships with Brazilian
farmers that would allow them to grow something rather
than cut down the rainforest.
Be unique. Happy Baby occupies a unique space in the
world of baby food by staying on the cutting edge of infant
nutrition science, says Shazi Amirali Visram, CEO of Happy
Family Brands. The company was the first to create a baby
cereal with probiotics and DHA. Its toddler snack line has
exclusive rights to use Salba (a branded chia seed rich in
omega- 3 fatty acids and fiber) in baby food.
Listen to customers. Visram says that Happy Family
Brands gets more than 100 questions and comments on its
website every week. What is unusual is not the number, but
how they are responded to. Every comment is answered by
one of the founders. When a customer had issues with
canola oil being used in the Baby Dhal (soup), the issue was
considered and the decision made to substitute olive oil.
Bring together a great team. The best companies always
have strong, visionary leadership. Great leaders build great
teams. Strong leaders also leverage their people resources
outside the company, forming relationships with highly capable and experienced external advisors and vendors. Intel-
