Proactive Green Marketing Strategies

23 i Waste Reduction Speaking of waste reduction, previous research has demonstrated that waste reduction effort through a lean systems approach has a positive effect on environmental performance Cronin et al., 2010. In addition, improving organizational processes that reduce waste increases efficiency will increase demand from environmentally conscious consumers Porter and van der Linde, 1995. Research also suggests waste reduction process is associated with a more positive green strategy than simply recycling waste Cronin et al., 2010. Another study also concludes that integrating waste reduction into strategies can lead not only to pollution prevention and environmentally responsible behaviors, but also higher firm profitability Porter and van der Linde, 1995. ii Environmental Management System Research found that firms with formalized environmental management system EMS gain higher performance Cronin et al., 2010. The International Organization for Standardization ISO, the number of ISO 14000 is the most widely applied EMS. ISO 14000 sets standards in terms of environmental policy, environmental objectives, implementation, control and continuous improvement Goldberg, 2001. Research suggests that the application of ISO 14000 implies that positive indicators of systemic approach to green business practices are effective in enhancing the triple bottom line of an organization Cronin et al., 2010. c Supply Chain Management A firm needs to integrate green strategy into the whole supply chain activities. In studying the supply chain management, it can be concluded the concept falls into 24 two categories: chain construction and closed-loop supply chain management. Chain construction widely discusses the inception of establishment of supply chain, while closed-loop system explicitly evolves the idea of how to bring back materials into the firms. i Chain Construction Establishment of supply chain in a company should either incorporate the horizontal or vertical integration of both upstream and downstream operation. This is imperative to assure flow of whole company’s operation. The chain construction itself should be able to gain highly relative bargaining power of suppliers to gain competitive advantage. To date, an increasingly ecological concern triggers green supply chain to create potential advantage for an organization, as well as bolster triple bottom line performance by delivering economic, social, and environmental benefits Cronin et al., 2010. ii Closed-loop Supply Chain Cronin et al. 2010 further holds that remanufacturing, remarketing, and closed-loop supply chain are essential drivers in managing green strategies. The rationale behind remanufacturing idea is how firm can maximize its value through designing or distributing products, in which cost of raw materials and energy increase. Later, remarketing can be passed through due diligence of scholars in assisting a firm to achieve its green goals by identifying market opportunities and marketing strategies that connect consumers with remanufactured and remarketed products Cronin et al., 2010. 25 Closed-loop supply chain CLSC constitutes the combination of forward supply chain FSC activities and reverse supply chain RSC activities , with the potential to improve the environmental performance of industrial operations to new standards, and to maximize profit and competitive advantages. Talbot et al., 2007. FSC entails the flow from new product development, environmental product design, product research and development, and development of responsible manufacturing, which pertains to total quality management, just-in-time manufacturing, and lean manufacturing Talbot et al., 2007. RSC deals with product returns, such as manufacturing, distribution, and customer returns Talbot et al., 2007 to the selling company, while the cycle will end when the company recovers the products maximum possible value Cronin et al., 2010. The integration between FSC and RSC can create a cradle-to-cradle life cycle for goods manufactures, sold, and returned and reused, as opposed to cradle-to-grave flow Cronin et al., 2010. Cradle-to-grave C2G is a full life cycle assessment from manufacture –known as cradle- to use phase and disposal phase, called grave Wikipedia.org, 2011. It is seen as traditional notion, known as end-of-pipe solutions. On the contrary, cradle-to-cradle has similar approach with cradle-to-grave , while the end-of-life disposal stage for a product is a recycling process. It is utilized to minimize the environmental impact of products by exercising sustainable production, operation, and disposal practices, as well manifesting social responsibility into product development Wikipedia.org. CLSC activities provide benefit in improving the environmental performance of industrial operations and increasing firms competitiveness and product differentiation Talbot et al., 2007. Furthermore, it should be managed to achieve