Examining how buyers and nonprofits can improve the environmental performance of suppliers

What is it about?

Material IQ (MiQ) is a new decision tool designed by nonprofit GreenBlue to help suppliers safely share sensitive chemical-toxicity data with their customers. As GreenBlue takes MiQ to market, it must determine under what market conditions to promote the use of MiQ and when to recommend that a buyer uses its implementation as an opportunity to work with an existing supplier.

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Why is it important?

We demonstrate how a buyer should coordinate the use of tools such as wholesale price premium and cost sharing to improve a supplier's environmental performance. From GreenBlue's perspective, promoting the use of MiQ and cost sharing are often viable strategies when there exists a one-to-one relationship between a buyer and a supplier. However, GreenBlue's strategy becomes more restricted when competition exists between suppliers.