The Freedom to Choose: A Catalyst for Sustainability and Innovation
What does Henry Ford’s famous quote about the Model T have to do with extended producer responsibility (EPR)? More than you might think.
Henry Ford, founder of the automotive empire, famously said, "Any customer can have a Model T painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black".
Imagine if that were still true today. Imagine your options were limited to one style of clothing, one type of cereal, one store.
We all thrive on options. Options drive the economy, advance innovation, and improve customer service by allowing businesses and individuals to exercise choice.
Conversely, a lack of choice breeds a monolithic environment that inhibits competition, dictates pricing and stymies the drive to be more efficient and effective or to improve customer service.
The same is true in the world of producer responsibility where brand owners/producers are required to recover the multitude of products and packaging that we, as consumers, use every day so that the resources can be repurposed in a circular economy. This requirement drives brand owners to find business solutions to deliver on producer responsibility obligations that contribute to a sustainable bottom-line and environment, social and governance (ESG) goals.
“Blue Box Producers under Ontario’s Blue Box regulation, have had to manage the complexities of this transition and deal with higher than expected costs in today's challenging economic climate,” explains Gordon Day, Vice President of Ryse Solutions. “That’s why it's more important than ever to make every dollar count and exercise your freedom of choice with business partners that understand your needs.”
When it comes to offering services to help producers fulfil these requirements, choice in producer responsibility business partners, such as producer responsibility organizations (PROs), serve and advance the objectives of efficiency, effectiveness, innovation, and customer service. Producers are not cookie cutters of one another. PROs are not cookie cutters of one another, and neither are municipalities and their residents. The Ontario Blue Box Regulation recognizes this and allows producers to choose a PRO partner just like they can for any vendor in their supply chain.
Ontario is a sophisticated model for how full producer responsibility can be achieved with a competitive environment as one of its core pillars. Let’s keep tackling this big feat competitively, collaboratively, and effectively.