As I sit here typing, I think I feel a wee bit peckish.
I’m wondering if I should walk into my kitchen and open that 12 pack of Penguin biscuits, boil the kettle and make a cup of instant coffee.
Consider the hundreds, if not thousands of people required for me to do these very simple tasks… as the end consumer. Still, the consumer chain which starts from the raw ingredients to make these things simply won’t end with the tasty biscuit and the cup of coffee drunk, as there is more to the life cycle such as where the empty plastic biscuit wrapper goes.
For example, the glass jar that my instant coffee came in may be partially made from recycled glass from another bottle or jar and the rest probably came from raw materials, mined from the Earth’s surface.
Of course, there are the people involved in making sure I get the products to consume. From my end, immediately, the chain goes from the check-out person who sold me the coffee and biscuits to the bus driver who drove me home from the shop I bought them.
Let’s think about the people involved with the primary sources of the products, such as the farmers who grew the coffee and chocolate beans. Beyond that point, there was a huge web of people across the world who spent many hours of their days to ensure individual consumers like me receive a satisfactory product… so as a customer, I buy more Penguins and coffee.
The cradle to grave life cycle of these two, seemingly simple products must have involved thousands of people across the international web of productions and operations.
Imagine after watching a really good movie, with the few hundred people’s names associated with that film at the end credits.
And think about the credits for the people who produced my one little Penguin biscuit and cup of coffee?
That list would be considerably longer than just the film credits for a film like Gone with the Wind. Advertisers, marketers, accountants, cleaners, farmers, oil workers, chemical plant workers, assembly line workers, the people who make the labels and no less the people who make the ink for the labels on the packaging and so on.
Thousands and thousands of people just so I continue buying their products.
And then you think that just for two consumer items like a cup of coffee and a Penguin biscuit, thousands of people are directly and indirectly involved, if you look around the room you are in right now, everything there has a massive story of interconnected people involved with each item.
In terms of Sustainable Café Ltd’s strategy going forward, as the guy who makes the decisions, I would like our products to be as streamlined as possible with the fewest possible people and raw materials involved in producing, marketing, selling, disposing and degrading our products.
I’m thinking each stage of the process to produce an item must use a lot of energy. Some is necessary to make stuff, like raising and shearing sheep and make usable wool to make a rug. But there are other things which might be able to be minimised.
For example, there is an amazing rug manufacturer who only use the natural colour of the sheep wool rather than use chemicals to colour it.
The simple production cycle of the rugs would be something like raise the (multi coloured) sheep herd, shear the sheep and produce the yarn to make the rug and sell it. And maintain the natural shades of the wool directly from the sheep without adding extra chemicals like dyes and such.
Not many people know about this wonderful rug maker, so I assume the marketing team would be minimal and the company who make these rugs are environmentally conscious and I’m also thinking they must use very basic brown, FSC, recycled organic paper packaging too.
That would minimise chemical use for the dyes, reduce various stresses on the environment such as down-stream pollution. I think I read that they do ship internationally, but only through surface shipping which has considerably less impact than say air freight.
Maybe, going forward, if my business, Sustainable Café, would be able to simplify the processes going forward, the impacts of my business on the environment would arguably be negligible compared to the larger market place businesses.
Wow, I think I have had a morning epiphany! Truthfully, we have been striving for these ways of working since the year dot.
Thank you so much for reading my thoughts of establishing the most effective ways of consumerism through basic streamlining operations.
With warmest regards,
Mark Banham
Director, Sustainable Café Ltd
