An entrepreneur discusses the importance of improving processes
by Diane Ruengsorn
Scale. It’s a word that continues to come up in my discussions as I talk about our activities for 2010. There are a lot of exciting opportunities ahead this year for my company, Domestic Aesthetic, and much of it involves growth and expansion – most notably in regards to more stores and countries. This involves increasing our operating scale to accommodate the production of higher volume, increasing the distances our products travel, and increasing the amounts of material we use. As we’re scaling up to supply new areas of the globe, we face the question “How do we remain true to sustainability?”
We downscale. This is defined as incremental improvements that can be made throughout our entire process. While it might not seem like a significant solution, small changes can create a big difference. For example, we pay careful attention to our packaging and shipping material. By simply increasing the robustness of our packaging, we reduce the amount of protective materials used or the need for secondary or tertiary packaging. And rather than seeking out new and local manufacturers for every country in which we sell our products, finding a central distributor significantly reduces our energy and fuel usage involved in transportation. A colleague of mine wrote a much more in-depth article in which he proffered his own examples and I welcome you to suggest your own.
