Sustainability in Mind: The C2C Paradigm Part1
I decided to cover the ‘C2C Paradigm’ as My first topic. I underwent some research and figured this would be a pretty interesting topic to share with the APICS Young Professional/Student Blog community. I am planning on blogging on this topic for the next 3 weeks. Today I’ll be introducing the main concept and context of C2C , and I will cover the actual methodologies of adapting C2C in actual business next week. I hope to cover the benefits and the effects of C2C by the end of this month.
Part 1: The Concept
The eco-friendly movement now seems to be main-stream in all fields of business and many new concepts and approaches are being introduced. C2C, Cradle to Cradle, is among one of these concepts which seeks to change the fundamental approach of how to look at business.
Without a doubt, the role Supply Chain Management bears in the scheme of green business is crucial, since SCM operation encircles all processes from sourcing raw material to distributing finished goods to end-users, plus the reverse flow. So lessening package material weight for better fuel efficiency, using dissolvable materials for products and packages, utilizing fuel efficient hybrid vehicles for transportation of goods, and reducing waste that occur during the whole supply chain process could all be considered tasks that fall under the responsibility of Supply Chain Leaders.
The past decade truly was a turning point of the business focus, since the awareness of moral and environmental issues rose from the business community along with the public community. These interests were fueled by many studies and actual business adaptations. However the main paradigm behind these efforts was still the C2G concept, or the Cradle to Grave paradigm. The C2G paradigm starts from the presumption that the value of a product or service continually diminishes from the point of creation until the point of disposal. So under the C2G paradigm, all the ‘Green-efforts’ made within the supply chain are only measures that will slow down this value depreciation process, not efforts to enhance or maintain the initial value. Under the C2G concept, no matter what the efforts are, business proliferation comes at the cost of destroying nature, and the green business efforts are just preliminary measures that delays this process.
Figure 1. C2G based Green Business
However the C2C concept, in other words, the Cradle to Cradle paradigm starts from a different ground of belief. It believes in the possibility of ‘Upcycling’, which refers to recycling that enhances or at least maintains the initial product value. Under this concept it is possible for business to thrive without sacrificing the environment, which means business proliferation and environmental sustainability are not in a tradeoff relationship. Since it is possible to maintain and even enhance the product value over it’s life cycle, there is no waste after a product has reached the end of it’s life cycle in an ideal C2C environment.
Figure 2. C2C Based Green Business
Interesting!!