Materials Compliance for Green Product Development: Balancing Social Responsibility With Profitability

Top Performing Companies Are Leveraging Materials Compliance Tools to Successfully Sell to Global Markets


BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 10, 2009) - In a newly released report, "Materials Compliance for Green Product Development: Balancing Social Responsibility with Profitability," Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS), found that top performing manufacturers were able to dramatically reduce their number of product recalls and stop shipments, while increasing new market opportunities by utilizing effective materials compliance measures. Ensuring the safety of consumers, while protecting the environment, has been a core priority among product companies -- and as such, their focus on the raw materials and substances used to make their products.

It has been three years since Aberdeen has researched this aspect of product development, during which the regulations and compliance issues were just percolating and becoming "real" through the introduction of penalties, fines, and new customer demands. In recent months, Aberdeen has seen an acceleration of interest and challenges for companies that strive to achieve materials compliance in Green product development. Superior compliance performance among these companies is the result of implementing best practices and enabling those practices within the appropriate compliance infrastructure.

"Implementing or improving materials compliance can contribute significantly to new market opportunities, but many organizations lack the initiatives, capabilities, and technological enablers to realize these opportunities. The primary reason for this is their fear of compliance cost translating into higher product prices, causing them to lose ground to competitors," explains William Jan, Senior Research Analyst for the Product Innovation and Engineering at Aberdeen Group. "However, top performing manufacturers are able to effectively align materials compliance initiatives with their product development processes and customer requirements. The result is an impressive return on their compliance investment."

This report is designed to provide guidance on how to select and execute initiatives on materials compliance management in light of an ever-growing list of environmental regulations.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: IHS and PTC. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, please visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=6032.

For additional access to complimentary research in product innovation and engineering, please visit: http://research.aberdeen.com/index.php/-product-innovation.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen provides fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having queried more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement - Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen or call (617) 854-5200, or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748.

© 2009 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
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Contact Information: Media Contact: William Jan Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5225 william.jan@aberdeen.com