Dematerialization workshop –

18 participants

Host: Vesela Veleva, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Impetus for workshop topic – capitalism structured so that profit is made at point of sale when instead services would be better.

Examples of successful service-based business models:

• HP - leasing printers, etc and consolidating services, reducing overall paper use and
• Xerox – leasing copiers
• Freegan (dumpster diving)
• Freecycle website - made easier with communications technology
• bike-sharing program (Paris, Amsterdam, Boston proposal, Portland (whitebike.org)

What about businesses that already are service based (e.g. food):

• Intrago - http://www.intragomobility.com/ - temporary use for getting from A to B (not A to A)

There are benefits to selling less (even for product sales) such as creating more "stickiness" between customers and sellers - ways to develop best solution for customers by partnering, not just sales. Benefits are not always as quantifiable.

Return programs (e.g. ink cartridges to Staples) - what gets done with them? Some go back to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Staples recycles others. Staples has a remanufactured toner business, and has some influence on suppliers, but does not dictate their technology. Further, Staples relies on new cartridges being available to be able to remanufacture.

• what about a subscription based model? similar perhaps to "ink drop" service. this would incentivize the sellers to have cartridges last longer to have lower replacement costs, and get long-term contracts.
• Does this just get to recycling debate? Not real change?

Opportunities for dematerialization:
Shrinking product and packaging size
Long-term relationships through subscription and service-based models
What about a mash-up Habitat for Humanity ReUse Store and an office supply store - use for excess office supplies - what if was located next to a retailer of the new products?

Major issue - convenience.

• is the model of communal resources (e.g., zipcar) really useful for everything?
• standard progression is an outside process/market brought down to individualized scale (e.g., ice blocks from community pond distributed by ice man to home refrigerators).

Decoupling in electricity markets is major step in right direction - important because flips the setup to induce conservation.

Issue of shifting responsibility for consumption from consumers to businesses - when real need is to reduce consumption in the first place.

Example of cell phones - really just want means of communication. While many companies kind of operate these models - accept old phones - distribute them, maybe recycle them, but don't have a plan for what old phones can be used for when they no longer work as phones. Cradle to cradle service ideas.

Another idea - durable products that gain market share by word of mouth and expansion, not by selling more to the same people. Counterpoint - that is not ultimately a sustainable business model - market would be saturated. Examples of products that are well-sourced but don't last long - better? worse because shorter-lived?

Is dematerialization actually happening? Ernst & Young studied the weight of the US economy with result that it had already peaked and was decreasing. What about for globe? Likely that U.S. has just shifted production/trade of heavy goods to other parts of the globe?

"The Story of Stuff"

Consumerism is basically a short-term strategy that here we have adopted to be our only strategy. Are we willing to give up its conveniences?

Much of discussion presented as questions.

Selling upgradeable products may not always be better - if spend to make products that can be upgraded but don't get people upgrading, may have wasted significant money and manufacturing.

Dematerialization is great topic for the "haves" but materialization is closely linked with increasing standards of living/reducing the "have nots" - more people out of poverty in recent years than in all history prior. However, commercial food production meant to lift people out of hunger/poverty, but is one of greatest continuing reasons for hunger.

Full cost accounting will help us choose which impacts to address - paying for what people really use.

Takeaways - business innovations for dematerialization:

• subscription model
• deposit for goods
• decoupling
• product design for reuse with regulation to require takebacks by producers
  

microblend - paint company based on custom colors/amounts rather than adding colors to white base.
Book recommendation:: Confessions of an Eco Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff by Fred Pearce
gmoke on youtube - video of WWII posters