Green, then lean…..

Cost recovery in the United States has undergone a marketing refocus over the past two years.  It is interesting to note the correlation between the focus of this niche industry alongside the current social trends of climate change and then the Global Financial Crisis.

In the months before the September 2008 financial crisis (GFC to the rest of the world), most CR vendors had been using environmental impact as the lead sales driver. Reducing waste and carbon footprint was the spiel; it was easy to parallel this with other industries and more importantly the social responsibility ideals that clients buying the product would be familiar with. Whether you are a corporation or a college, reducing tangible items like the volume of paper or toner used is painless and measurable and, compared to some other techniques for going green, an easy sell.

Once the dust settled on the initial impact of the GFC, the CR industry foresaw an opportunity in the cost cutting drives within organizations. Now rather than pushing green credentials it was all about plain old cost reduction. Sure the reduction of costs is done using the same ideas and systems as reducing your carbon footprint, but now the client is saving money that it can spend elsewhere when times are not so sunny.

Knowing your market is sales 101 but to know and flow with it so seamlessly is impressive for such a niche industry. The further the US moves away from the financial troubles of 2008 the more the shift away from pure cost reduction is apparent, now a multi angle approach incorporating both environmental and cost benefits is evident.