O desenvolvimento de produtos verdes e sua relação com as estratégias ambientais: o caso da empresa Philips no Brasil e sua área de cuidados com a saúde

Abstract

Despite the economic, social and especially environmental benefits that the products considered "green" can provide, they have not proliferated yet the way one might expect since they emerged in a systematic way, in the late 1970s. A large number of reasons can be identified. From the supplies view of these products, despite low motivation that the companies can be due to incipient demand, those that aim to provide green products also face a few questions: what is effectively a "green" product? When is it possible to label it, without running the risk of being seen as a mere practice of green washing? What are the best strategies to follow? In this context, the present study aims to analyze the features of the green product development s program and its relationship with the environmental strategies in an electronic sector s company. With this purpose, a qualitative case study was conducted about the Philips in Brazil, particularly in its Healthcare business area, having as sources of information, literature searches, documents and interviews. Among the main results, the essential characteristics of the green product development program of the organization were identified, including the definition of green products used by the company, the environmental aspects, the identification and disclosure, as well as the broader environmental strategic approaches adopted by the organization, with different intensities: Energy Efficiency, Material Eco-efficiency, Green Supply Chain and Green Management, respectively. The results provided evidences that the green products development cannot be considered as a standing alone practice within organizations, but it must be properly supported by environmental strategies defined and implemented by the company. The Green Management strategy did not result as the most relevant, contradicting the general tendency expressed in previous studies. On the other hand, the pattern of environmental strategies adopted by companies in the Healthcare sector was repeated, since the strategies of Energy Efficiency and Material Eco-efficiency resulted as the most used by the organization. Regarding the contributions to professional practices, the results can contribute with organizations that intend become green product developers and even assist determining best environmental strategies to be adopted, including in the case of companies with different business units.