Recover and Reuse

By Channaka Jayasinghe

14 September 2015

The 18th annual global CEO survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers illustrates the disappointing perceptions of business leaders from around the world on climate change. Regrettably, interviews conducted with 1,322 CEOs, from over 70 countries, had no reference to the issue.

Most studies on the threat that climate change poses to the local economy seem to focus on the agriculture sector, due to its dependency on rainfall and temperature levels.

However, since supply chains extend across borders, it is not surprising that disasters linked to climate change occurring in one part of the world can affect domestic industry in another.

For instance, droughts and floods in cotton producing countries will affect the apparel industry in Sri Lanka.

Businesses can reduce the national carbon footprint by adopting conventional climate change mitigation steps such as embracing green reporting practices which improve energy efficiency and waste management practices – which, in turn, translate into higher profit margins.

There are also more innovative ways by which businesses can reduce their carbon footprint. Following an agreement between apparel manufacturer MAS Intimates (a subsidiary of MAS Holdings) and Marks & Spencer, the world’s first purpose-built eco-manufacturing plant for apparel was established and began production of the first carbon-neutral lingerie line.

Other apparel manufacturers like Brandix Lanka and the Hirdaramani Group also have won many environmental accolades, some of them being world firsts for eco-friendly factory designs.

Curbing waste generation need not stop at improving production design and manufacture. There is room for improvement in the entire lifespan of a product – from the point of sourcing raw materials, to its ultimate disposal. By bridging the gap between these two processes, linear economies that use the ‘take, make, dispose’ model can be turned into a ‘circular economy.’

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is currently promoting this business model. It is inspired by biological systems where the concept of waste does not exist and constant circulation is possible. The circular economy, or cradle to cradle production, involves the continuous recovery and reuse of the materials of a product, once its lifetime is over.

Local electric and electronics product manufacturer Orange subscribes to this concept by recovering pure copper for its products from copper waste, which also contributes to limiting the illegal scrap copper exports.

Concepts of industrial ecology are also applicable in the quest to curb climate change. A business will look at the flow of materials and waste, and direct them to closed loop processes where what would conventionally be identified as waste is relabelled as by-products.

The hotel sector’s use of treated grey water for gardening, and the use of biogas and segregation of generated waste, are examples of this.

Providing incentives for consumers to assist in redirecting waste to resource extraction processes, following their end use, is particularly tricky. Certain electronic equipment producers and distributors following Europe’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive – it places this responsibility on suppliers of electrical products – seek to form a link between end users and themselves.

The British telecommunications service provider O2 and mobile phone network Vodafone provide consumers with the option to rent a phone which they can return at the end of the lease period (provided it is in good condition), and upgrade to a new phone for a new lease term. This offers customers the option to upgrade with ease, by returning the obsolete tech, thus completing the cycle of a circular economy while satisfying the consumers’ innate desire to consume more.

MUD Jeans is another company that leases its products. At the end of the one-year lease period, the customer has the option of either trading it in for a new pair for another year-long lease or extending the term by a few more months.

The company also assumes responsibility for repairing the jeans free of charge, during the lease term.

In a planet with finite and depleting resources, it does make sense to use less materials and energy for production purposes. By adopting the concept of a circular economy, it is possible to fashion a healthy approach to business which does not consider meeting the bottom line and doing what is right by the environment to be mutually exclusive.

Originally published in the LMD September issue