Design a Flowchart of a Circular Economy in a Consumer Packaged Good

Tim Bode, Wittenberg University

Summary

For my Busn340 marketing class, the class must divide up into groups and conduct a semester long research project to develop a new brand of product in one of the following consumer packaged goods categories: 1) Personal care products, 2) Non-alcoholic beverages, 3) Packaged food products, 4) Household products, 5) Pet care products. The project involves presentations and research papers on all 4 P's of marketing (Product/Brand, Place/Distribution, Pricing, Promotion). This exercise was to take a critical component of the product/brand developed and design a flowchart showing what the sustainability costs were at each stage (ie. extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, retailing, and consuming). The flowcharts were designed using power point and its capabilities for inserting shapes, text, directional arrows, etc.

Management, Marketing, Operations/Supply Chain Management | College Upper (15-16) | Online Adaptable

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Learning Goals

The exercise basically gets the students to consider factors that many overlook when talking about the sustainability issues involved in bringing a new brand to market and promoting its sale while it is active in the market. This probably relies mainly on critical thinking and synthesis of ideas. There is not too much quantitative reasoning involved except in the calculation of a percentage from time to time. Other skills used are writing and visual presentation.

Context for Use

This activity is a follow-on to the Wicked Problem of an Equitable Zero-Waste Circular Economy module.

This course is mainly for juniors and seniors. It can contain 10 - 30 students. The groups are usually 3 - 5 students. They usually huddle over a full class session (50 minutes) and discuss their ideas and then develop the flowcharts on power point. They then forward their slide(s) to me via an email attachment.

Description and Teaching Materials

Students are on their own to find suitable materials via the internet in order to do this with. I did not make them cite where they got some of their facts and figures, but it could easily be made part of future exercises. Power point is usually part of most Microsoft PC office software set ups.

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process -- educator-only file

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process

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A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy In the laundry detergent (household products) CPG category including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process -- educator-only file

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy In the laundry detergent (household products) CPG category including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy in the Non-acoholic beverage industry including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process -- educator-only file

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy in the Non-acoholic beverage industry including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy for a component used in the Personal Care products industry including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process -- educator-only file

A flowchart of a linear v. circular economy for a component used in the Personal Care products industry including descriptions of sustainability issues faced at different phases of the process

Teaching Notes and Tips

Best tip is to wander from group to group asking questions and helping them get over stumbling blocks. An example - when it came to the retail portion a lot of students said "there's no sustainability issue with retailing". I then asked them to think about the power source used to provide the lighting, heat, and possibly refrigeration needed in the physical retail store (or online retail website warehouse). Where does that come from? There is usually a good chance that it was made from burning fossil fuels.