SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007 - (Page 11)

electricity vendor, selling you power at a ﬁxed (low) rate regardless of future utility company rate hikes. TO-DO LIST FOR VENDORS On the vendor side, packaging is one of the ﬁrst, cheap ﬁxes. Anthony DeRocco, vp/marketing at K2 Sports, thinks that reducing the stream of cardboard and plastic packaging material is a signiﬁcant step the company can take quickly. “We’ve set up a cross-functional team consisting of people from accounting, production and sales, to look at all our processes,” he says. “But you start with what you can do cheaply and immediately. That involves commuting habits – bus passes for employees, for instance – and internal recycling.” Then there’s what DeRocco calls the tough stuff. Supply chain issues hold the promise of major carbon savings, and big multi-national corporations have begun planning long-term programs for continual improvement of manufacturingtransport-warehousing processes. The cheapest way to move freight is by sea, then by rail. Trucking from the seaport or rail depot is relatively expensive in terms of fuel burned and therefore carbon footprint (it’s cheap in capital investment, though). If you’re a smaller vendor, talk to your shipping reps about optimizing these processes. Perhaps the thorniest problem for vendors will be clean and recyclable products. EU regulations already restrict use of hazardous materials in most manufactured goods. “We’re working now to pull PVCs (polyvinyl chlorides) out of our products,” notes DeRocco. In future, the EU may require that the bulk of skis, snowboards, boots, bindings, and clothing be made of recyclable materials. Much of what goes into snow gear now is not biodegradable, so if it ends in a landﬁll, there it stays. On the other hand, most of it is recyclable – polyethylene, most forms of polyurethane, steel and aluminum, nylon, even wood cores. The issue is how to separate them in a waste stream. When that problem is solved, old gear can be reborn instead of land- ﬁlled. At least the snowsport business doesn’t face the electronics industry’s problems with heavy metal disposal. If you’re a small business, you have an advantage. Big corporations face a lot of intractable problems, many of which may simply be too expensive to ﬁx. As Ken Gart says, “My job is to maximize proﬁt.” But if you own a stand-alone store in a stand-alone building, you are in control and are free to make your own decisions. Little things add up to a powerful message. Buy a fuel-efﬁcient hybrid vehicle, put the store logo on it, and park it out front. In the long run, snowsport businesses should hope to help effect change in customer lifestyle choices. Customers should take away a message that their own homes can be more energy-efﬁcient. d 331865_Hotronics.indd 1 | S I A | T . I . P . | S U M M E R 2 0 0 7 | 10:36:24 AM 11 5/30/07 http://www.hotronic.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007

Contents Word off the Slopes SIA Staff Contributors SIA Business SIA Board of Directors Greening the Biz Want Instant Success? Just Add Snow Out and About Day in the Life – Supplier Day in the Life – Retailer Day in the Life – Rep Products & Services Index to Advertisers

SIA The Intelligent Partner - Summer 2007

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