These musings come to us from an insider at an internationally recognized consumer goods company who wants to help bring sustainability to the corporation. Itʼs a good overview of the sourcing, production and supply chain issues that most companies experience and the many obstacles that those who want to bring sustainability to the corporate world are up against. Look for more confessions to come from this Industry Insider.

I think of "greening" __________ and don't know where to begin. What would be palatable to the top brass and impact the consumer? What would hold my interest long enough to impact the business in a meaningful way?

Our factories and our processes are probably the most polluting and petroleum based in the world, the only good thing about it is that it is done in China and Vietnam and not here. But then we ship or fly the product into the U.S. and truck it around and build new stores to sell it in-- the whole supply chain is one toxic mess.

Packaging - we use our overlong pre-consumer waste boxes as advertising, 20 color laminate - we have tissue inside, comic books, hang tags, keychain and other non-essential gwp's. Because we change our marketing as often as we change our underwear, we waste a lot of boxes when we get a new and better idea.

Recycling - we have no recycling of the end product from consumer (as does ________) nor do we reuse our manufacturing waste (as _____ does).

Sampling - we have no limit on the amount of samples we produce (factories go bankrupt satisfying our needs - yes, many more than just one), we make endless mock-ups of products, we use PU coated leathers//pvc/rubber etc.

Waste - everyday we fill giant cardboard boxes with store bought samples and one off development samples (we send them all to ________ - I have no idea what happens then, probably landfill in New Jersey ).

Advertising - we burn up magazine pages, airtime and billboards, we produce catalogs/flyers/comic books/pop for store displays.

Warehouses - some of the biggest in the world in about 6 countries (not to mention our distributorsʼ warehouses).

Employees - no one blazing a trail green-wise and just thinking of the scope of it all, makes me sleepy.

Paper - we generate literally tons of reports each month that could be displayed then archived on-line

Website - we have about 15 different corporate and intranet sites that don't link, our own website does not represent who we are, our product lines, or a way for our retailers to tap into real time product development/buying

In short, we are the hard-core American Industrial Offender.

Loathsome.