Design 21: Social Design Network

The Set-up. HSBC has a marketing campaign out called "There's No Small Change". You've probably seen it. Beautiful close ups of leaves. I liked it visually more than almost any green campaign I've seen, but remained very skeptical of their commitment to the environment.

Then I saw Nicole Rousseau, the VP of Retail Marketing at HSBC, in a panel discussion hosted by the Columbia Business School Alumni Club. The topic was the development of their campaign. I expected stats about the target market, profiles, growth of green marketing, data, data, data.

What I learned was totally different.

Nicole worked with green marketing consultant Jacquelyn Ottman and advertising agency JWT. They created a plan to empower individuals to make a difference. The campaign offered little things that customers could actually do, right now, and have an impact on the environment.

Is This Enough? Is e-billing enough to conquer our environmental problems? No. But it takes the conversation out of "THE ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS" and into "I am working for change". Big first step, and much props to HSBC.

Now they could just roll it out, but they didn't. They committed to get the whole organization on board. No small feat for a company with 2000 branches in the US. The understanding was that it doesn't work if your customer is empowered with e-billing while your branch is printing thousands of pounds of single sided paper on laser printers and tossing it out.

So they came up with a play book for all...

Japan's waste system was recently covered by the Wall Street Journal. you have to pay to read it

Some amazing facts

• Japan owns two thirds of the worlds waste incinerators
• Japan recycles or burns 80% of its municiple waste
• At its current rate of growth Japan will fill its last landfill in 30 years

They are about to launch a new manual for waste separation that should extend it another 20 years. Either way, they are running out of space for waste. In that regard their programs are more stringent and a unique test bed for future waste solutions.

This is how thier system works now. They have three catagories for waste. 1)recyclable. 2) burnable. 3)non-burnable. Under the new program, the catagory burnable will include rubber, up to and including small rubber boots. It also includes some plastics.

What?! Isn't that stuff nasty to burn? Yes. But apparently they scrub the exhaust of everything toxic. The byproduct is a small amount of toxic ash which they seal in air tight containers.

They enforce the regulation through a system you could only utilize in Japan or the UK. They use clear plastic bags. Garbage collectors will not take bags that include improperly sorted waste. No one wants the shame that goes with your bag being the only one left at the end of the day, so they comply. They also have a long history of regard for nature.

Japan has one curious new regulation that I want to know more about. Products above a certain size (about 12") are not allowed to be burn...