78 4 Case Description and Within-Case Analysis
in a certificate provided by a third party. This certificate enables the organization
to make their commitment transparent to their customers.
The second motivation is the belief in the benefits of the concept. This led to theimplementation of the Cradle-to-Cradle concept instead of the many other concepts
that exist. Reason is it ensures reusing material that retains its quality when used
over and over again, as explained in this citation: “The objective was to be able to
recycle and reuse material without losing it quality. This was what motivated us
and is why we produced our whole product portfolio according to this standard after
2010” (see Appendix: German Quote 28). The Cradle-to-Cradle concept includes
the whole lifecycle.
Furthermore, the organization sees great benefits for themselves, the environmentand the customers in pursuing this concept. The benefit for the organization stems
from the reusable resources which can be refurbished and reused endlessly without
almost any additional effort. For the environment, the benefit is that the ingredients
are either biodegradable or reusable and so further exploitation of nature can be
avoided. Customers benefit from healthy products and potential cost savings, e.g.
when giving back the old product and buying a new one at a lower price.
4.7.3 Challenges for the Implementation
The first challenge which has been mentioned several times throughout the interview
is lack of customer education. Prices for circular products tend to be higher than for
conventional products. Reason for that are e.g. development effort, low production
volumes or higher prices for the resources. Currently customers are unaware of the
benefit of circular products and are not willing to pay more for them. Therefore,
customer education is necessary to highlight the benefits of a circular product,
such as pollutant free, non-toxic and only non-hazardous ingredients in order to
justify higher prices. The company representative forms it as follows: “The problem
is that customers are not educated. When I am talking to potential customers and I
confirm that cradle-to-cradle products are absolutely free of toxic material (...) they
become interested” (see Appendix: German Quote 29).
Another aspect why educating customers is important is that today severaldifferent certificates exist in the context of sustainability and green production, as
described in the citation: “In addition, there are too many certifications like ‘Blauer
Engel’ and so on which suggest all [products] are ecological and sustainable. Because
there are so many certifications, it is difficult to know what exactly each certification
stands for and how it can be manipulated” (see Appendix: German Quote 30). Without
any deeper knowledge about them it is hard to identify any differences. To avoid