Making Green Affordable and
Profitable
"Green" goods and services are frequently less
attractive. The farmer’s market is probably not
as conveniently located as the local
supermarket. And the packaging is not as
appealing. Consequently supermarkets dominate
food retailing while farmer’s markets only have
a minute market share.
 Old
fashioned Terry towelling nappies are much
greener than disposable ones but they are far
less convenient. So… surprise surprise…
disposable nappies massively outsell Terry
towelling ones. We all realise that they cause
huge environmental damage but unfortunately this
isn’t a big enough incentive to get us to change
to something less convenient.
We all appreciate that if we slow down we use
less fuel in our cars, but because we are in a
hurry we don't want to drive slowly. Some people
can see the bigger picture but most don't. We
buy millions of bottles of water rather than
fill up a bottle from our tap at home. This has
a huge detrimental effect on our environment,
but it is more convenient. So we carry on doing
what is most convenient.
However, if the provider of the product or
service that helps the environment can make it
more attractive as well as greener they are on
the right track. Better still, if it is cheaper
as well as greener, people definitely will
change. So we are talking about product
development, design, marketing and price.
And price is very, very important. If a greener
product or service is cheaper as well, it begins
to look extremely attractive. And if it can be
improved as well, it’s a no-brainer. Everyone
will eventually change. They will be delighted
to do so. And the supplier will sell more and
more and make more profit.
So if we are seeking to change people’s
established lifestyle patterns and buying habits
to reduce environmental damage the Holy Grail is
to offer a win-win-win situation. The customer
is better off, the supplier makes more money and
environmental damage is reduced. |
So how can this be achieved? Here’s an example.
Most car tyres are still sold by tyre depots
such as Kwik-Fit and ATS. About fifteen years
ago the manufacturers of the wheel balancing
machines that are used in these tyre depots
started to use computerised circuit boards.
These needed less voltage, so they could be run
off 12 volts rather than 240 volts. This made it
possible to put all the tyre fitting equipment,
including the wheel balancing machine, in a van
and offer a mobile service, which was a great
improvement in customer service.
In 1992 that is where we came in. But because we
were a new business and didn’t already have
expensive tyre depots we could cut out that huge
overhead and offer a completely mobile service
and much cheaper prices. We expanded steadily
and by the mid nineties we had opened thirty or
forty branches.
Then along came The Internet. We saw how it
perfectly complemented what we were already
doing, so we launched etyres and our business
has boomed. As our volume has increased we have
opened more branches. The added volume has
enabled us to pass through even lower prices. We
now operate in over seventy UK territories.
The increased volume also enables us to optimise
our work schedules and journey planning more
efficiently, keeping the mileage of our tyre
fitting vans to a minimum.
The mileage of our fitting vans, on an
efficiently planned route, is less than half
that driven by car owners to get to a central
depot. Less mileage is better for the
environment. And our new vans cause even less
pollution because they use LPG.
etyres is very concerned about environmental
issues. We have always made sure that we operate
in an environmentally friendly way. We use zinc
wheel balancing weights instead of lead and we
are very careful that the scrap tyres are
disposed of correctly and only by properly
certificated contractors.
All of this adds up to a much greener sales
proposition. Drivers are changing in droves
because our prices are up to 50% cheaper than
national tyre depots and our service is far
better.
You don’t often hear about companies making more
bottom line profit by being greener but it is
perfectly possible to do that if the Customer
has a financial benefit as well.
That’s exactly what we have done at etyres. |
