|
|
Take A Stand
By: Joel D. Schaffer, MAS
Issue: 2009apr
Do you have the conviction not to sell an unfriendly product?
In the spring of 2008, I traveled to the Guangzhou Fair on a mission to discover the newest and greatest promotional products made in China. I ran into about 300 other suppliers and distributors while there. I stayed at the Palace Hotel, about 30 miles from the largest exposition center in the world and away from the chaos of the big city. The brand new hotel is rated five stars and was a bargain at under U.S. $200. We shuttled back and forth to the fair in an airport-style bus. Rickshaws whizzed by as we sat in western-style traffic on the increasingly crowded roads in China. I’m familiar with this type of congestion, as I live in New Jersey, a state with a stigma partially earned but substantially enhanced by Johnny Carson’s and Jay Leno’s relentless jokes.
Between exits 6 and 9 on the Jersey Turnpike (I-95) there are warehouses so long, so large, that I wonder how they stand. On our daily route to the Chinese exhibit center we passed an industrial plant, approximately a half mile long and five stories high, it dwarfed anything I have ever seen at home, including the steel plant in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The smoke stacks belched choking emissions that were visible for miles to the naked eye. There were no scrubbers or filters atop these massive structures. The comparison to Jersey stops at the size of buildings. Even the legendary smell of the pig farms in Secaucus can’t compare to China. Nor can the now refreshed Hackensack and Passaic rivers, where fish run and dolphins have recently come to play.
During my stay in Guangzhou an occluded front settled over the province. The Pearl River Delta is the heart of Chinese industry. Guangzhou, formerly Canton, is in the heart of the delta. There is beauty and history older than our western civilization, but modern Guangzhou is best described as a men’s room at a local bar—dingy, littered, odiferous and filled with dense cigar smoke.
It was dark and gloomy, much like rain but not cloudy. Not breathing wasn’t a viable option, nor was inhaling the foul smelling air, thick choking soot, smoke and hazardous particles. My eyes occasionally teared.
The endless tributaries in the delta take the Pearl River on the last legs of its journey into the South China Sea; it is best described as a septic flow of polluted water. Many locals, walking and biking, wore surgical masks. This was not a response to SARS, or a fear of Westerners, but rather a concerted effort to filter their personal air—the same air they frequently export across the Pacific to California. It is said 25 percent of the pollutants in California’s air come from China.
I am reflecting back on this trip because a five-star hotel usually has top-shelf amenities. This facility had amenities in the closet that my son and I had never seen. They welcomed us not just to China, but to planet Earth. The amenities were two hazardous material suits—body cover, hood and mask.
By now, we are all more conscious of the damage the people of this planet are doing to our environment and the exacerbation of the problem caused by the rapid development of China, India and underdveloped nations. As a result, our industry has ever so slowly entered into the green era. Frankly, it is almost laughable that we approach our role solely to tell our clients which of our products are environmentally friendly and how fast they degrade.
In January, I sat at The PPAI Expo’s general session and listened to a paid guest panelist say, “Give me a break. Your industry is responsible for putting more useless stuff into our lives and now you are going to tell us it is green?”
Like it or not, he has a point. I have not changed key rings in 20 years. (A Barlow key ring has a lifetime guarantee.) I estimate a billion key rings annually enter the world through our industry, but 99 percent of them offer only redundancy and clutter. I could add scores of other products, but I have spent 41 years developing friendships in this industry, and I don’t want to burn them all.
To look at our role in this ominous global crisis, we have to examine what we sell and ask if we have the conviction not to sell an unfriendly product. Consider how many chemical-filled batteries are in the promotional products we sell that simply have little or no use to mankind.
I stand guilty, your honor. I sell sound cards that open, play a 20-second sound clip and then are trashed. Wow, what a contribution to society! Each of these has one or two batteries and toxic chemicals on the circuit. It is a package of environmentally unfriendly components created for a momentary thrill of playing the sound of a phone ringing. Consider the wasted energy, the wasted resources and labor required just to hear hands clapping or voices singing "Happy Birthday." Were we to rate our products on an environmental nightmare scale, this could be a 10.
We talk about taking hold of our global environment now so that our children and grandchildren in 2050 have some semblance of a planet as we know it. Stand on notice, I will not let Sam, Hanna and Noah (my grandchildren) have one ice cube that flashes, or any other illuminated promotional product that serves no function other than to add a bit of sparkle, except for a brief period of time at their respective Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.
So, are we going to get serious or be part of the world of lip service?
Our industry serves its clients in five areas of human behavior: appreciation, recognition, motivation, education and reinforcement.
It takes a long view and deep thinking to realize what our promotional products industry role should be in terms of the world energy, pollution and global warming crisis. Within the five functions of human behavior, education and motivation are two areas where I believe we have a role.
The world needs education now. Like him or not, Al Gore has done a lot to educate us on what is happening. We also need a continual mega dose of motivation to help others execute the lifestyle changes they need to make to alter the course of our planet and people. We can sell recycled grocery bags, but we must help communicate the message about our use of plastic, our reliance on oil and our need to conserve as well as swiftly find efficient alternatives to petroleum products.
In his book, Hot, Flat and Crowded, author Tom Friedman claims the planet’s population will increase by a billion people in 10 years. He adds that, in that time, a billion or more Chinese and Indian people will want American lifestyles.
We need to look closely at our stuff and ask what it does to the environment and see how it performs from cradle to grave. We need to look at our products and ask, Does this given product do more harm than good? Does it have a long term place in the recipient’s life, or does it deliver a single impact?
I think it is time we, as an industry, got into research and development and began production of a new generation of promotional products aimed at solving our CO2 crisis.
It is time for PPAI to study how to encourage our industry along these lines. I was there at the start of Sm@rt art and helped in developing guidelines. Imagine an industry where we have standard terms and definitions and can tell our clients that a given product is rated according to the standards it meets. Imagine an industry with an annual awards program that recognizes “best new product designed to help address global warming.” Our industry, as do each of us, has a role to serve. How dare you drive to see an account in an SUV and then present a case for going green. Think about it.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS, is CEO for Randolph, New Jersey-based supplier Soundline, LLC.
972-927-4100
www.soundline.com
joel@soundline.com
|
|
|
|