Why the social context of production matters Sample Clauses

Why the social context of production matters. So far the focus of attention in this report has been on consumers and practices. But producer decisions are made in a social context too: that of the organisation, the links with suppliers and users, the strategies of competitors and the wider context of culture and (government-imposed) standards for business operation. Some firms are more inclined to improvements in resource efficiency than others. Dijk and Xxxxxxxx (2012) find that the willingness of car manufacturers to develop hydrogen vehicles correlates with their technological and organizational competences to do so. The business case for innovation is interpreted differently by firms. Their attitude towards government intervention also differs: some firms (such as Philips in the case of energy-efficient lightning) welcome regulation; others deeply resent it and engage in lobbying to alter the details of the regulations to which they will be held. In resource-intensive firms (firms for whom material costs are significant), resource efficiency receives a good deal of attention for normal business reasons of saving costs. This does not hold true for companies for whom material costs are a small part of the costs (less than 5%). Rising costs of resources may lead them to give attention to ways of reducing costs from resource use but they may also opt to pass on such costs through higher prices to consumers. Few companies make resource efficiency an issue for marketing and product choices. The main reason for this is that consumers are not very interested in the resource use element of products. In the case of food and bottled water, there has been a discussion about food miles, but not for other products. There is one case where resource use really got the attention which is the product design principle of cradle-to- cradle, a concept popularised in 2002 by Xxxxxxx XxXxxxxxx en Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx in their book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which received an enormous amount of attention in the media (television, newspapers). One of the reasons why it got so much attention is that the slogan “waste is food” and the use of biodegradable (and recyclable) materials speak to people. It inspired various companies to incorporate it in their business decisions but sales of C2C products have been discouraging. The carpet company Xxxxx is struggling to make a business model out of it and the same holds true for van Gansenwinkel, a Dutch waste management company interested in becoming a produc...