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products. Especially with the growing trend of green hotels and green travel, Taisun Twist water would be a good complementary product for the green theme.

5.3 Case Conclusion

Through investigation of how carbon footprint labelling in done worldwide, how foreign-owned companies implement carbon footprint labelling, and how Taiwanese pioneers implement carbon footprint labelling through in-depth interview with Acer and Taisun, the SWOT analysis of carbon footprint labelling is summarized below.

1. Strengths:

The investigation of carbon footprint label can be summarized into the below SWOT analysis. The strength of carbon footprint label comes from the elevating awareness of climate change and increasing demand for low carbon products.

Another one is because it is a very new practice in Taiwan, early players of this new scheme is likely to benefit from improved corporate image with more innovation and environmental friendliness. Furthermore, since not a lot of businesses have started the practice, businesses which have done carbon footprint labelling will differentiate themselves from others by having the label on their products. The label can create marketing value for businesses to create the buzz and develop innovative marketing strategy. The best thing about carbon footprint labelling is that it engages consumers into the supply chain and makes consumers the pull force to make suppliers and businesses lower their carbon emission.

2. Weakness:

The weakness of carbon footprint label is mostly increased short-term cost for carbon footprint auditing. However, the cost for carbon footprint labelling is expected to decrease as database for GHG emission is established and as employees become familiar with the application and assessment process. The increased cost also causes

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Taisun to raise the product price and therefore, it was less price-competitive than Coca Cola’s “Shui Sen Huo” water.

Another weakness is because life cycle assessment takes time to finish and application and certification also needs time to process; therefore, products with high turn-over rate are less suitable for carbon footprint labelling. The two bottlenecks in obtaining the carbon footprint label for ICT industry are the complexity of supply chain and processing time of application.

Another weakness is that new training and learning is needed for every employee in the company and during this period of time, employees may have concerns and resistance towards the carbon footprint labelling scheme. It will be the leader’s role to convey the purpose of carbon footprint label clearly to the entire company and have everyone engage in the company’s new vision.

3. Threats:

One benefit of carbon footprint label at this moment is its uniqueness and creates opportunity for businesses to differentiate from competitors; however, as competitors learn about the purpose and value of carbon footprint, they will start applying and using the label on their products as well. Although this reduces the benefit of carbon footprint label on the aspect of differentiation, it is a long-term benefit for all businesses to start assessing their carbon footprint and label their products so that consumers can make more environmental friendly decisions and businesses have the drive to lower their GHG emission.

Another threat comes from the possible attacks on the claim of being environmental friendly while there are other ways to lower GHG emission.

Controversy on the actual purpose of carbon footprint label has been heatedly discussed; some see the carbon footprint label as a marketing tool to “green-wash”

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consumers, while others see it as the commitment business actually makes to reduce the impact of their operation on the earth.

The last threat comes from the relationship between logistics and GHG emission. As the distance the product travels to reach its consumer increases, the GHG emission also increases because transportation causes GHG emission. This has direct influence on Taiwan because of Taiwan’s export-based economy. For businesses with clients outside of Taiwan, the distance the product travels to the country is increased. If carbon footprint label were to become a standard for all industries and product green-ness were to become the most important factor for purchasing-decision making, the only way to maintain the competitiveness of products would be producing the products locally to supply the local market. This would require businesses to outsource manufacturing to factories all around the world in order to serve their clients and this would definitely increase the cost of operation for businesses.

4. Opportunity:

1) Carbon footprint label has become a differentiation selling point for businesses and this could evolve into series of products with gradual improvement in every new model. This way, consumers can always expect the lower carbon footprint model that will be developed and offered by the company.

2) Another opportunity comes from selling carbon footprint labelled-products to countries which have high awareness of climate change and high consumer demand for environmental friendly products. For example, United Kingdom is one of the most aggressive nations in promoting sustainable development; therefore, consumers have strong favour for carbon footprint labelled products. As climate change leads to more damages in the world and creates more unexplainable phenomena, consumers

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will begin to see the importance of reducing GHG emission. Therefore, it is expected that products that are carbon footprint labelled will receive elevating attention and preference by consumers.

3) New opportunity also emerges when businesses bundle the concept of carbon footprint label, low carbon products with cost-saving benefits. For food products, especially foods with packaging, which can result in waste, can be a great incentive for Taiwanese consumers because garbage comes with cost. To encourage waste reduction and recycling, Taipei city government imposed a new law for residents to use a specified garbage bag to throw garbage, the price of the bag varies;

the larger the volume, the higher the price. Therefore, this acts as a natural incentive for consumers to lower waste production and increase recycling.

5. SWOT Analysis

Table.6.1 SWOT Analysis of Carbon Footprint

Strength

Rising climate change awareness

 Innovative approach in Taiwan

 Differentiation from competitor

 Increased monetary/time cost from life cycle assessment

 New learning period is needed

Threat

 Competitors learn and copy

 Attacks from emphasis on environmental proposition

 Long-distance transportation for export may affect trade performance

 Deliver new value proposition

 Draw connection between carbon label and cost-saving opportunity

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This section discusses the lessons learned from the international practice on carbon footprint labelling initiatives and suggestions for Taiwan’s carbon footprint label development.

1. Comparison of Acer and Taisun’s approach of carbon footprint labelling

Acer and Taisun have both done the carbon footprint labelling. The implementation process is summarized in the below table.

Table.5.3 Comparison of Acer and Taisun’s Carbon Footprint Label implementation:

Acer Taisun

Motivation  Leader’s own vision

 Government support