Coca-Cola and the Environment

Roughly 75 percent of plastic soda and water bottles end up in landfills, by some estimates. What a waste. We could argue about whether to blame lazy consumers, governments that fail to promote recycling, or the beverage industry. This is a growing problem that requires atttention. This is a continual issue that United Resource Recovery Corporation faces (URRC). The URRC. provides recycling services for the photographic film/silver recovery market. The company focuses on recycling plastic food and beverage containers made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This week with the co-operation of Coca-Cola Co. a $60 million joint venture partnership with URRC in opening the world's largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C. When fully operational, the plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds of food-grade recycled PET plastic each year the equivalent of nearly two billion 20-ounce Coca-Cola bottles. Coca-Cola has set a long-term goal to recycle or reuse 100% of its bottles and cans in the United States.
PET plastic beverage bottles are made with up to 30 percent of their PET material derived from plants. This process for making PET plastic bottles that contain a blend of traditional material and up to 30 percent plant-based material. Today, the plant-based material is made from sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar cane processing.
So the question remains.. is this enough,? Is there enough environmental concern being addressed? In this case it is just to say that Coca-Cola is making a step in doing theire part to solve a big and needless waste problem. Now we need governments to do more to promote curbside recycling–maybe with “pay as you throw” programs, that charge wasteful people more money. And, of course, we need consumers to think twice before throwing a bottle in the trash or, worse, by the side of the road.

Video on How to Better the SCM

Video on Greener Supply Chain Management

Ten Steps to a Greener Supply Chain a great youtube video on how to increase the success of SCM on an environmental perspective..

The Green Supply Chain; Cutting Out Weak Links

As companies evaluate their carbon footprints, supply chains are one area of business that have come under increased scrutiny. Making the complex network of manufacturers, packagers, shippers, wholesalers and retailers greener, it protects the environment, saves energy, and ultimately reduces costs.
Ways in which cost is reduced and reduced carbon footprint: advancement of electronic network systems, thus making communications between all links in the SCM paperless and efficient.
Measuring Carbon Footprint
To green a supply chain, a company must evaluate the situation. This can be accomplished either by having a thorough walk through by an environmental consultant or other environmental experts.
To do a thorough investigation of a supply chain, companies can turn to software like Infor's SCM Network Design. The latest release of this supply chain management and modeling software includes the capability of analyzing the environmental impact of a company's supply chain. The software's sustainability criteria let companies evaluate the carbon emissions related to the production, storage and transportation of the goods they sell.
Green Communication
With the advancement of digital communications between companies and their suppliers and transporters it can make a big difference in the environmental impact of a supply chain. This reduces the use of paper, decrease unnecessary transportation, and cost as well as error rates. Verizon Business has partnered with GXS, a provider of B2B supply chain integration and collaboration products, to help clients communicate electronically with their manufacturers, distributors and shipping companies.
With the environment as a consideration, in the SCM it greatly impacts the advancement and success of a company.

T.V. Commercials Online the Challenge for Marketers.

The growing popularity of consumers watching television programs online is staggering. Hulu and Joost are popular sites to watch movies or programs, both sites sell advertisement space, this means $money$ for marketing companies, or does it? With the size vast size of online users how can advertisements be effective? Marketing companies have figured out an effective way in which they can deliver the advertisements. First off, there are currently many sites that do not allow you to click past the advertisement, however to avoid clicking off the site, it is usually one or two commercials. Secondly the advertisement is delivered to a specific program or movie, meaning a more captive audience.
So now how to target the younger generation?? Those who don’t watch television programs?? Knowing that webisodes (similar concept as television episodes but instead, returning to a site more than once) are most appealing, this is the new market for advertisments, when trying to captivate the younger audience.
Now, what about mid to older generations not watching t.v programs?? Corporate videos are becoming bigger and bigger because know one wants to read extensive information on a company and click around to find out answers when a video can easily sum it up. This is great for companies in decreasing cost of salespeople. So it is here where Marketers have also decided to captivate a specific audience.
These are all great strategies for marketers to get around the obstacle of being successful in advertising online..

RFID- Radio-Frequency Identification- is a small electronic device that consists of a chip and an antenna. The chip can carry 2,000 bytes of data. It works much like a barcode or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, but better! RFID can be used to identify an object or a person wirelessly, using radio waves. This way one can capture data on the tags and transmit it to a computer system.
RFID is being used on a world wide level, a popular benefit of RFID in regards to e-business is the increasing efficiency in the supply chain management. It can be used to uniquely identify each container, pallet, case and item being manufactured, shipped and sold, which means an increased visibility throughout the supply chain, also, it has the potential of helping retailers maximize sales and profit by reducing out of stocks.

RFID Supply Chain Management

Dead or Alive, Walmart still wants your business

Wal-Mart, one of worlds largest retail stores has now decided that selling every other type of merchandise was not quite enough.. They have now began selling funeral Urns and Caskets online. This could hinder the sales of funeral homes, with Wal-Mart’s low prices of $895.00!! (Black casket on right)These caskets are sold online and delivered where you like.
A leading funeral company Star legacy Funeral Network Inc. offers a variety of caskets, and those (beige on right) visually comparable to Wal-Mart sell for $2,499.00!!! When looking at the lowest cost of Wal-Mart’s casket being 895.00 and the lowest cost of Star Legacy casket being $949.00. The visual comparison would suggest that once again Wal-Mart has proven to have the lowest prices!! In just one click you can now have Wal-Mart deliver diapers and caskets to your destination of choice!