Dear Steve!
On the first one, I'd suggest using "Håkansson, Håkan & Alexandra
Waluszewski (2002), Managing Technological Development: IKEA, the
environment and technology, London: Routledge." It's a very interesting
story on the development of chlorine-free paper and the involvement of
various actors like Greenpeace (NGO), Swedish government (public), IKEA
and IKEA's suppliers (private sector).
An excerpt from chapter 1:
"How to cope with development in a developing world
Variations on a theme: two ways of addressing an environmental threat
The IKEA catalogue is often claimed to be one of the world?s most
widely read publications. True or not, with a circulation of more than
100 million catalogues per annum, produced in thirty-nine different
editions in about as many different languages, it is a well-known and
visible publication. When two big environmental issues, the growing
European waste mountain and the discharge of chlorinated compounds from
pulp bleaching, became connected to the production and use of printing
paper in the early 1990s, this certainly worried IKEA. As the head of
IKEA?s catalogue group, Hans Hildorsson, explained:
When the public debate focuses on cutting down trees, or on the waste
disposal problems, or maybe in a near future the air pollution created
by our printers, it is closer at hand for the public to think of IKEA,
being much more present in the minds of the people than the companies
in the paper and printing industry. This tendency is reinforced by the
fact that these companies choose to remain anonymous to the general
public. The public opinion hits IKEA immediately and creates great
damage to the IKEA image and position on the market.
(Hildorsson 1993:2)
IKEA?s idea of how to address these issues was revealed in the
formulation of a new environmental policy. In order to present an IKEA
catalogue that even the toughest environmental groups could accept as
?green?, two new quality aspects were introduced. First, the catalogue
paper had to be totally chlorine-free; no chlorine at all was to be
used in the pulp bleaching process. Second, the paper must include an
insert of a certain amount of secondary fibre - that is, pulp made from
post-consumer paper waste. The new environmental policy was presented
in 1992, and the decision would force suppliers to develop such a new
catalogue paper within one year.
If the IKEA catalogue is well known to the general public, IKEA as a
purchaser of printing paper is not less known to producers of
high-quality printing paper. With an annual consumption of about 50,000
tonnes of LWC (light-weight coated) paper, classified as one of the
most exclusive printing paper products, IKEA was regarded as a
prominent customer. Further, IKEA was also known as experienced in
paper and printing technology and for its high-quality demands on both
the catalogue paper and the printing process. But IKEA?s definition of
?green? LWC catalogue paper astonished the suppliers. Not only was such
a product not yet commercially practical, the creation of such
catalogue paper was even regarded as an impossible mission. LWC paper
consists of a very thin base paper (about 30 gram per square metre
(gsm)) which is coated with clay at an average speed of 1,500 metres
per minute (mpm). Inserting pulp based on secondary fibre, which always
contains a certain degree of contaminants, in this complicated process
was regarded as asking for trouble, both with the paper production
process and the printing process. Furthermore, in order to give the
catalogue paper its necessary brightness and strength characteristics,
a mix of about 50 per cent of chlorine-dioxide-bleached pulp was seen
as indispensable.
The seriousness of these objections is highlighted by the fact that one
of the largest European producers of high-quality printing paper, SCA
(Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget), saw them as something of a guarantee
for keeping LWC as a ?secondary-fibre free? product. In the early 1990s
SCA invested SEK 2.4 billion in order to transform its largest
newsprint mill into a producer of LWC paper, among others, as a way to
get round the increasing demand for secondary-fibre-based printing
paper. The new LWC mill had just started its production when IKEA
presented its environmental policy, and certainly this was taken into
consideration. This was despite the fact that SCA was not normally a
supplier of IKEA and had no ambition to become one due to that
company?s need for very concentrated deliveries. What did bother SCA
was whether the new IKEA environmental policy would create similar
reactions from its own customers. However, SCA?s management still
intended to keep LWC free from IKEA?s definition of a green catalogue
paper. The requirement on an insert of secondary fibre was simply
regarded as too technically complicated to deal with. As SCA?s vice
president and manager for research and development, Alf de Ruvo,
expressed it: ?The high quality demands and the large volume of filling
substances is the main reason that it is neither realistic nor
necessary to use recycled fibre to obtain a competitive product.? 1
Furthermore, it also seemed possible to label the traditional LWC paper
as a ?low-level? chlorine-bleached product. Since the base paper was
made of a mix of chlorine-dioxide-bleached kraft pulp and chlorine-free
mechanical pulp, the discharge of chlorinated compounds per tonne of
finished paper was so restricted that it could meet at least some of
the most stringent demands of the environmental groups. Thus, although
SCA shared the belief that the environmental debate about recycling
paper waste and the use of chlorine as a bleaching agent was a severe
threat, the interpretation of how to cope with the issue was almost the
opposite of IKEA?s."
On the other two, I can't really comment.
Best,
Martin
Quoting "Steve Maguire, Prof." <
steve.maguire@MCGILL.CA>:
> Hello ONE members,
>
>
>
> I am updating a MBA elective course on business and sustainable
> development and am looking for the following sorts of teaching
> resources:
>
>
>
> 1) MULTI-PARTY ROLE PLAY EXERCISES: I have used the following teaching
> case / role play over a 2-3 class period in the past and am quite happy
> with it but am nonetheless curious if anyone could recommend something
> similar and perhaps more recent:
>
> - Chlorine and the Paper Industry [Beckenstein, Alan R. & Brad Webb,
> 1994, Chlorine and the Paper Industry, MEB: Washington, DC.]
>
>
>
> 2) FILMS: I have reviewed the ONE teaching resource site but was curious
> if anyone who hasn't posted materials there could recommend films on
> business and sustainable development topics running anywhere from 10-120
> min?
>
>
>
> 3) TEACHING CASES: The following are some of my historical favourites
> and I am wondering whether anyone who is familiar with them can
> recommend more recent ones addressing similar issues?
>
> - Weyerhaeuser [Milstein, M. (under direction of Hart, S.), 1997,
> Weyerhaeuser Company: The Next 100 Years, MEB: Washington, DC]
>
> - Xerox [HBS, 1993, "Xerox: Design for the Environment", HBS case
> 9-794-022]
>
> - Deja Shoe [Hardy, P (under direction of Hart, S.), 1996, Deja Shoe
> (A), MEB: Washington, DC]
>
>
>
> Please send your suggestions to me at
steve.maguire@mcgill.ca . I will
> assemble responses and post them to this list in a few weeks. Thanks
> very much for any and all assistance. Cheers,
>
>
>
> Steve Maguire
>
> Desautels Faculty of Management
>
> McGill University
>
>
>
>
>
>
--
Martin Lehmann
PhD Student, MSc Env. Eng.
Aalborg University
Department of Business Studies
Tel: (M) +45 2946 0771