How SUSTAINABILITY improves your Customer Experience
Use technology and data to create truly customer-centric solutions.
The “Greta Effect” describes the changed consumption, choice, participation and travel behavior of young people and adults, who are reconsidering their behavior as a result of the activities of the Swedish climate protection activist Greta Thunberg and several climate activists demonstrations around the globe.
But it wasn’t only students. People of all ages and classes suddenly became aware of the harmfulness of their behavior up to now. Armed with this knowledge of which behavior is harmful to the environment and climate, they want to change their behavior as consumers, avoid waste and consume and live in a CO2-neutral way.
At the same time, the European Union government has released the ESG (Environmental Social Governance) decree, which concerns the CSR of companies, an evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility. Businesses are under increasing pressure in this area.
In this way, sustainability has become an important factor in decision-making — which is critical for companies, who need to meet the expectations of their customers and the economy. The demand for products and services that are produced and shipped in a climate-friendly way and that try to reduce waste and CO2 emissions has skyrocketed within recent years — and this trend will persist, with further increases for the next decade.
A few examples
As a result, Apple has reduced the packaging of their new iPhone by half and plans to transition its entire supply chain to 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
Amazon has come up with Climate Pledge Friendly, a certificate which will help users to identify and purchase only sustainable products. It supports Amazon’s general Climate Pledge of becoming CO2-neutral by 2040.
Snocks, a young German startup producing underwear and socks, is one of many companies that have already eliminated plastic completely from their packaging.
Sustainable methods and methodologies
As with most disruptive and transformative approaches, it’s all about the right mindset. If you cannot change your mind, you won’t be able to change anything else. To become more sustainable, companies must follow the concept of a Circular Economy. It’s based on some simple principles:
- reduce
- recycle
- reuse
- remake
The so-called Circular Design approach by IDEO, which is basically an eco-friendly extension of the classical Design Thinking process, goes even a bit further and offers a bunch of methods and worksheets that help to generate sustainable solutions.
Develop awareness of your current situation and define goals you want to achieve with new solutions in a specified time frame. You must make sure to select the right materials along the way to re-thinking all the products and services you offer and, ultimately, re-thinking all your business processes.
How can technology and data help you to be sustainable?
As we already outlined in our previous articles on Behavioral Analytics, Predictive Services and Phygital Experiences, data is the new gold. Data lets you analyze your today and optimize your tomorrow. The more you know about your customers, the better (and this means also more sustainable!) the services you can offer to them.
After several decades of overexploiting our earth in the aftermath of the industrial revolution, nowadays we need to move from PITO (Product in, trash out) to DIDO (Data in, Data out):
Processes
We probably don’t have to mention that digitizing processes doesn’t just eliminate endless paper piles. Being more efficient with complex tasks also saves precious time and money.
Logistics
You can easily optimize your logistics based on customer data. Clever distribution of products based on smart algorithms makes your business as high-efficiency as possible and helps to reduce CO2 at the same time.
Materials
Creating products from garbage retrieved from our oceans not only saves the expense of producing new or even artificial materials, it also helps nature and makes your product more unique and attractive to your customers.
Production
3D printing of spare parts with natural fibers can be a smart alternative for extensive production as well. The usage of robots can take efficiency, speed and accuracy to a new level. Technology in general makes it possible nowadays to come up with new and sustainable ways of production which might not have been conceivable in the past.
Biomimicry — get inspired by nature
From a personal perspective, when it comes to sustainability challenges, the potential for innovative solutions that draw from nature, seems to be the most promising approach for creating a better world. And it’s an extremely interesting approach as well. ;)
Janine Benyus, Founder of the Biomimicry Institute, describes in the video below three basic things, that you can copy from nature, to improve your products:
- Forms, Shapes (e.g. self-cleaning lotus leaves)
- Processes (e.g. how ants communicate with each other)
- Ecosystems (Circular Economy)
Here are some examples:
Shinkansen
In 1989, Japans bullet train Shinkansen had a problem — it was really fast, but incredibly loud when leaving a tunnel, which was a huge problem in dense residential areas. Eiji Nakatsu, an architect who by chance also was a passionate birdwatcher, came up with the glorious idea of redesigning the shape of the train based upon the characteristics of birds. When the train was finished in 1997, it was 10% faster, used 15% less electricity and operated below the 70 decibel noise limit.
Sharklet Technologies
Sharklet Technologies use shark skin patterns to create special surfaces for clinical facilities to prevent transfer of diseases. This is achieved purely through the structure of the material, which alone inhibits bacteria from attaching, colonizing and forming biofilms. Since sharks are resistant to fouling organisms in seawater, including algae and barnacles, they were the perfect source of inspiration.
Festo — Bionic Learning Network
Festo are experimenting in their Learning Network with robots that draw on beneficial aspects of animal behaviour for fulfilling certain tasks. In everyday factory life, automation technology takes on typical actions such as gripping, moving and positioning goods as well as controlling and regulating processes. Nature solves all these tasks naturally, simply and energy-efficiently. What could be more natural than to look at natural phenomena and learn from them?
“The world is poorly designed. But copying nature helps.”
Conclusion
Designing and creating great customer experiences comes with a great amount of responsibility. Responsibility for customer data, for improving people’s lives — and also for our natural environment. As we are the designers and thinkers behind our world of tomorrow, it is our duty and our chance to make the best out of it. Don’t miss this chance!
Want to learn more about creating Ultimate Customer Experiences?
You may want to have a look at our previous articles on
Customer Centricity Transformation and Flywheel Business Growth Model or Predictive Services etc… or just stay tuned to what’s coming next ;)
Get in contact:
Eve Cecon | Business Innovation Strategist @ Sensory-Minds
e.cecon@sensory-minds.com
