Discuss about the Ecostore and Sustainability.
The need for a sustainable environment is at a zenith in today’s world. With the increasing carbon foot print, the number of chemicals used in products, pollution, effects of greenhouse gases and so on, the population globally are fighting to find ways to make the environment more habitable (Blowers, 2013). However, the actually output of ecological and environmental stores and products available is low. It is to say that we are at the beginning of an era where the ecology is given more importance than profits (Ganesh, 2014). One of the key motivations to do the same is the effects the current practices are having on the human body. A huge numbers of new diseases and several kinds of cancer can be considered as a result of the current lifestyle (Hemmelskamp, 2013). There are several entrepreneurs around the globe who have realized to step up and take charge in making the environment a safer place to live in.
Ecostore is one such initiative by Malcom Rands who realized that despite using organic practices, the number of chemicals used day to day products have a negative effect on the health. With a spirit to place the health of individuals first Malcom along with his wife and other experts has found innovative products that are plant based using ingredients that are safest for the customer. With stores in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, and USA the company through its global presence has made an impact on the global customers to use products that are not only healthy for the individual but for the environment as well.
Ecostore, has put forward a new kind of business idea that focuses on customers rather than on profits. It has opened doors to a new way of gaining loyal customers. This has put the Australian market on the map as the country itself has made way to several innovative and eco-friendly products.
Ecostore has made sure that the concept of sustainability is embedded at every single step in their organization (Pearce, 2013). Just creating products that are sustainable is not enough. The ideology itself should be embedded within the organization to ensure that the company is actually making an impact on the world.
Organizational behavior is corresponds to the understanding of how humans behave in an organizational set up (Langton, 2013). Every person have their individual traits and have a tendency to put forth their best foot forward in an organizational set up. How humans communicate with each other inside an organization determines the organizations behavior as a whole (Wilson, 2013). The organizational behavior can be classified as behavior between individuals of an organization, behavior in a work group and behavior of the organization as a whole. The behavior is impacted by the path laid down by the management and how the employees are expected to behave (Lee, 2013). The policies and rules laid down all effect the behavior
Sustainable development in business relates to ecological sustainability, social sustainability etc. which are all a movement towards corporate social responsibility (Wheeler. 2013). Eco efficiency is another quality that is required to be imbibed in the culture. Production of ecological efficient products and practices that are not harmful to the environment are taken up by the organizations. Several companies such as ecostore, Unilever, Nike have taken up sustainability as the heart of their business.
At ecostore each individual aims at improving the health of their customers. These indirectly involve improving their own quality of life. The employees are given continuous opportunities to find ways as an individual and a group to improve the environmental practices. With “No Nasty Chemicals” as their primary agenda, ecostore supports initiatives from the house of the employee. They believe that changing the way they live it what will effectively change the way the company works.
Employees are the heart of any organization. It is only through employee’s organization goals, vision and mission can be achieved (Mondy, 2016). Hence, recruiting the right kind of employees and creating a right environment has a high effect on how the organization works. Every employee needs to be valued and have to be given importance (Mathis, 2016). Their ideas need to be considered to ensure that employees feel involved. All this is a part of human resource management. Several theories and practices are developed over the years in an effort to understand the best way to manage the employees. (Hendry, 2012) However, every company has its own practice. The reason being, that every company works for a different motive (Bennett, 2014). Some want to make profits while some want to make difference.
Ecostore has made sure that the employees of the company are given high priority. Each and every employee that worked for the company are handpicked and are only recruited when they are as driven about sustainability as the CEO Malcom Rands is. His partner Melaine was his first resource who shared with him the vision to provide products that are ecological sustainable and have no nasty chemicals in them. Their prime chemist, a winner of New Zealander of the year award, Sir Ray Avery is the a gem, who along with his team of scientist finds ways to develop alternate ingredients to the generally used chemicals in cleaning and bathing products. Every employee at Ecostore is valued and their opinion matter. The home of the company today is finding ways to become an Eco village. Partner ideas are valued so much to the extent that the company has funded organic gardens idea that has been brought up one of their own employee. With only 20 odd employees and a revenue of $33 million, the company is indeed working towards a sustainable environment.
Globalization is not a new word in today’s era. Every company aims to have a global reach and supply to customers are around the world (Beck, 2015). There are several companies that have international presence and there are several others finding ways to have a global presence. All the same, these companies are in a tough competition to reach to as many customers as possible. International business requires a significant man power especially in manufacturing businesses (Pieterse, 2015). Also, the taxation, health policies and other trade policies also determine how well a company can penetrate into the global market.
Ecostore is a company that believes that a reach to a global market would help more customers migrate into the habit of buying products that have few chemicals and more plant based products. However, it is not simple to work internationally. The sheer amount of monetary input required to set up a retail store is demanding. However, ecostore today is growing steadily. The company had made an intelligent way to penetrate into the international market. Starting with New Zealand the company moved to Australia the very sibling of its birth country. With similar policies and wider customer base Australia has proven to be a great market to help the world realize what has been going wrong with the products currently in use. They later migrated to the closer neighbors Singapore and Hong Kong and now to USA.
The company in its international journey made sure that the manufacturing and transportation of products does not increase their carbon footprint. For the same, the company has set up several retail stores and found ways to recycle the existing products along with the bottle, caps and scoops. They also move around with trucks that collect the recyclable material produced by them and use the same to create new bottles.
Technology is one of the key factors in companies that are looking for ways to make a difference. The existing technologies are all ways to produce a product. However finding alternatives to these can be challenging (Phillips, 2013). The world has in a very early stage found ways to use chemicals that are harmful to the environment to create daily cleaning products. This has gone to the extent where several of these products if being harmful are being used as either they are cheap or have been used for several years (Johnson, 2014). There is of course a need to change the way these products have been used.
At Ecostore sustainability is the key. The whole idea of the company is to find ways to produce products that use ingredients that are environmental friendly and keep the health of the customer a priority. This takes in a lot of investment, a wealth of knowledge and a big scoop of scientific research along with technical inputs. The key factors are to find products that are sustainable. The company develops ingredients that are plant based and mineral sourced as a replacement to harmful chemicals. To make sure that everything they produce is ecofriendly they have used technology is the most effective way.
The company produces packing methods that enable the same. Laundry boxes are made from NZ PEFC, Auto dish tab boxes are 85% recyclable and ecostore bottles are of high density polyethylene. Even the measuring scoops are of 100% regrind plastic and their labelling is fully recyclable and need not be removed for recycling. All these indeed have been achieved with the help of recycling technology
The story of ecostore is pretty interesting. The company was set up as Malcom Rands and his wife Melaine discovered that despite all the sustainable and organic practices they have implemented in developing their surroundings including their gardening practices they were still prone to toxic chemicals. A closer look at the products they use from day to day helped them realize that the bath, body care and cleaning products they use may be the culprits. This motivated them to develop products that are healthier and use minimum chemicals. The motivation factor was the impact the regular products had on their own health.
The concept of putting health first was an innovative approach in the early 90’s as then the products that where cheap or expensive and exotic where popular. It was within months that customers that used these products realized that several skin related diseases where circumcised with the use of these products. This motivated the company further to develop a wider range of products. The company initially began in Auckland but to reduce their carbon foot print moved on to establish retail stores all over New Zealand and Australia.
At ecostore innovation is key for survival. Formulizing products that have close to zero chemicals is challenging and providing such products as competitive prices is difficult. However, with the help of their lead chemist Sir Ray Avery, their aim is to keep finding safer alternative to any ingredient such as SLS, CAPB, tricolsan etc. that is doubtful in providing safety to the individual using it and the environment as whole. They use only plant sourced and mineral based ingredients as alternatives such as Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii etc. Also, to assess the safety impact of each of the product the company gets assistance from corporations such as Environmental Working Group.
Innovation and their principle is also seen in the way the company packs its products. For example the company uses water based adhesive to stick their labels and fully recyclable Polypropylene labels that need not be removed. They also have introduced a closed loop recycling trial to recycle ecostore bottles that are used in creating new bottle and laundry scoops.
Every company needs to grow especially those that are actively involved in making this world a better place to live. Ecostore has a great scope for further development as the company cares for its customers and have the ability to gain loyal customers. The company is also providing a gateway to the world to adopt to cleaner products and environmentally friendly practices. The below strategies would help the company grow further.
The company today is relatively small business. Not in the terms of financials but in the terms of human resources. The company has a very small team but has a global presence. This makes the availability of the products a difficult task. The supply chain has be to enhanced and established in accordance to the country in place (Christopher, 2016). The production of products majorly happens in Auckland. However, the production now has to be spread over other countries to supply. There is a need for the company to intake more number of scientists and researches that can be used in developing products. The need to increase the labor not just in one country but in all the countries it works in will help the company look at several other ingredients that are local to a foreign area, thereby increasing their chances of abandoning chemicals all together.
The company sells its products at major supermarkets including Woolworths and Coles thereby increasing its visibility. It can further increase its market by selling products online. The company today does online sales which are restricted to their own website. However, to reach to a wider area the company needs to find several other online stores that can collaborate and sell the products (Zhou, 2013). The online stores can act as a buffer to make several customers aware of these products thereby increasing the interest of the customer. Flash sales are another great idea to include and grow the customer base.
The company needs to set up its marketing game. The reason being that in order to help a wider range of customers a wider network is required (Armstrong, 2012). With the boom of social media, the marketing costs have become almost insignificant when compared to the revenue they generate. Bases such as Instagram, Facebook provide an opportunity to advertise amongst likeminded people (Jones, 2014). Another efficient marketing strategy is to advertise on YouTube which is the equivalent of the 90’s television. A simple 10 sec ad can help the company reach to millions of customers.
Conclusion
Chemicals are one of the many reasons for the growing number of diseases. These chemicals are often used in the everyday products such as cleaning and bathing products we use. To crumb the negative effects of chemicals ecostore has found ways to produce products that are ecofriendly and healthy to the customer. Their policy of health first and their consistent effort to find alternatives to chemical based products has put the company forth as a global producer of inspiring products that help the world be a better place.
References
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Ganesh, V.A., Baji, A. and Ramakrishna, S., 2014. Smart functional polymers–a new route towards creating a sustainable environment. RSC Advances, 4(95), pp.53352-53364.
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