Environmentally-responsible or "green" marketing is a business practice that takes into account consumer concerns about promoting preservation and conservation of the natural environment. Green marketing campaigns highlight the superior environmental protection characteristics of a company's products and services, whether those benefits take the form of reduced waste in packaging, increased energy efficiency in product use, or decreased release of toxic emissions and other pollutants in production. As the Encyclopedia of the Environment noted, marketers have responded to growing consumer demand for environment-friendly products in several ways: "by promoting the environmental attributes of their products; by introducing new products; and by redesigning existing products—all components of environmental marketing." Indeed, marketing campaigns touting the environmental ethics of companies and the environmental advantages of their products have proliferated in recent years.
Most observers agree that while some businesses engage in green marketing solely because such an emphasis will enable them to make a profit, other businesses conduct their operations in an environmentally-sensitive fashion because their owners and managers feel a responsibility to preserve the integrity of the natural environment even as they satisfy consumer needs and desires. Indeed, true green marketing emphasizes environmental stewardship. Environmental Marketing author Walter Coddington, for example, defined environmental marketing as "marketing activities that recognize environmental stewardship as a business development responsibility and business growth responsibility." Another analyst of green marketing, Greener Marketing editor Martin Charter, defined the practice as "a holistic and responsible strategic management process that identifies, anticipates, satisfies and fulfills stakeholder needs for a reasonable reward that does not adversely affect human or natural environmental well-being." Such interpretations expand on the traditional understanding of business's responsibilities and goals.
A number of factors have caused business firms in some industries to incorporate an environmental ethic into their operations. The principal factor, of course, is the growing public awareness of the environmental degradation that has resulted as a consequence of the growth in population and natural resource consumption throughout the world during the last 50 years. The issue is particularly relevant in America, which accounts for fully one quarter of world consumption despite having only a small fraction of the world's population. This growing public awareness of environmental issues has brought with it a corresponding change in the buying decisions of a significant segment of American consumers. As the Encyclopedia of the Environment observed, "many consumers, and not just the most environmentally conscious, are seeking ways to lessen the environmental impacts of their personal buying decisions through the purchase and use of products and services perceived to be environmentally preferable."
Businesses took heed of this growth in "green consumerism," and new marketing campaigns were devised to reflect this new strain of thought among consumers. Companies with product lines that were created in an environmentally friendly fashion (i.e., with recycled products, comparatively low pollutant emissions, and so on) quickly learned to shape their marketing message to highlight such efforts and to reach those customers most likely to appreciate those efforts (an advertisement highlighting a company's recycling efforts, for instance, is more likely to appear in an outdoor/nature magazine than a general interest periodical).
Ironically, studies have shown that the most environmentally aware consumers are also the ones most likely to view green claims of companies with skepticism. As George M. Zinkhan and Les Carlson wrote in the Journal of Advertising, "green consumers are the very segment most likely to distrust advertisers and are quite likely to pursue behaviors and activities that confound business people." Corporate reputation, then, has emerged as a tremendously important factor in reaching and keeping these consumers. A company that touts its sponsorship of an outdoor oriented event or utilizes nature scenery in its advertising, but also engages in practices harmful to the environment, is unlikely to gain a significant portion of the green consumer market. Of course, such tactics are sometimes effective in reaching less informed sectors of the marketplace.
Environmental or green marketing differs from other forms of advertising in some fairly fundamental ways. The Encyclopedia of the Environment summarized the most striking differences effectively: "First, unlike, price, quality, and other features, the environmental impacts of a product are not always apparent and may not affect the purchaser directly. Thus environmental claims are often more abstract and offer consumers the opportunity to act on their environmental concerns. Second, unlike most advertised product attributes, environmental claims may apply to the full product life cycle, from raw material extraction to ultimate product disposal, reuse, or recycling [see the discussion of life cycle analysis below]. Third, and most important, environmental marketing provides an incentive for manufacturers to achieve significant environmental improvements, such as toxics use reduction and recycling, by competing on the basis of minimizing environmental impacts of their products."
In their book The Green Consumer, John Elkington, Julia Hailes, and John Makower discussed several characteristics that a product must have to be regarded as a "green" product. They contended that a green product should not:
J. Stephen Shi and Jane M. Kane, meanwhile, noted in Business Horizons that the consulting firm FIND/SVP also judged a product's friendliness to the environment by ultimately simple measurements: "FIND/SVP considers a product to be 'green' if it runs cleaner, works better, or saves money and energy through an efficiency. Businesses practice being green when they voluntarily recycle and attempt to reduce waste in their daily operations. Practicing green is inherently proactive; it means finding ways to reduce waste and otherwise be more environmentally responsible, before being forced to do so through government regulations. Green promotion, however, requires businesses to be honest with consumers and not mislead them by over promising."
LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS Most analysts agree that the "life" of the product and its parts is one of the most important components in determining whether a product is "green" or not. Most people think only of the process of creating a product when gauging whether a product is green, but in reality, products impact on the environment at several additional stages of their useful lives. Life cycle analysis (LCA) and/or product line analysis (PLA) studies measure the cumulative environmental impact of products over their entire life cycle—from extraction of the resources used to create the product to all aspects of production (refining, manufacturing, and transportation) to its use and ultimate disposal. These studies are sometimes referred to as "cradle to grave" studies. Since such studies track resource use, energy requirements, and waste generation in order to provide comparative benchmarks, both manufacturers and consumers can select products that have the least impact upon the natural environment. Some detractors of LCA studies, though—while granting that they do provide useful information—contend that they are subjective in setting analysis boundaries and claim that it is difficult to compare the environmental impact of disparate products.
Perhaps no area of green marketing has received as much attention as promotion. In fact, green advertising claims grew so rapidly during the late 1980s that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued guidelines to help reduce consumer confusion and prevent the false or misleading use of terms such as "recyclable," "degradable," and "environmentally friendly" in environmental advertising. Since that time, the FTC has continues to offer general guidelines for companies wishing to make environmental claims as part of their promotional efforts:
The FTC regulations apply to all aspects and forms of marketing, including labeling, advertising, and promotional materials. "When a business makes any environmental claim, it must be able to support that claim with reliable scientific evidence," summarized Shi and Kane. "A corporation trumpeting an environmental benefit that it is unable to substantiate is treading on thin ice and leaving itself open to substantial penalties if a legal suit is brought against the company."
In addition to delineating marketing claims that might be regarded as false or misleading, the FTC also provides guidance to businesses on how to make specific claims about environmentally-friendly aspects of their operation, in part by clarifying the definitions of such commonly used terms as "recyclable," "biodegradable," and "compostable." These guidelines were issued (and remain in force) not only to curb businesses engaged in misleading advertising practices, but also to clarify the regulatory environment for companies. Various entities, from states and cities to industry groups and standards-setting organizations, had developed their own definitions in the years prior to the publication of the FTC report precisely because of the dearth of federal guidelines. "As a consequence," said the Encyclopedia of the Environment, "marketers faced a patchwork and sometimes costly marketplace where relabeling, legal actions, and negative publicity can create additional costs, can cause market share losses, and may deter some from making credible claims altogether."
One avenue commonly used by companies to promote their specific ecological concerns (or polish their overall reputations as good corporate citizens) is to affiliate themselves with groups or projects engaged in environmental improvements. In eco-sponsoring's simplest form, firms contribute funds directly to an environmental organization to further the organization's objectives. Another approach is to "adopt" a particular environmental cause (community recycling programs are popular), thus demonstrating the company's interest in supporting environmental protection efforts. Sponsorships of educational programs, wildlife refuges, and park or nature area clean-up efforts also communicate concern for environmental issues. Environmental organizations charge, however, that some businesses use eco-sponsorships to hide fundamentally rapacious attitudes toward the environment.
Another vehicle that has been used with increasing frequency in recent years to convey environmental information to consumers is "eco-labeling." Ecolabeling programs are typically voluntary, third-party expert assessments of the environmental impacts of products. "By performing a thorough evaluation of a product, but awarding only a simple logo on packages, ecolabels offer consumers clear guidance based on expert information," claimed the Encyclopedia of the Environment, which noted that government-sponsored ecolabeling programs have been launched with great success in many areas of the world, including Europe, Canada, and Japan. Indeed, those programs, which provide consumers with easily understandable information on the most environmentally sensitive products and services in various market areas, can be a potent factor in guiding the purchasing decisions of consumers. Recognition may be given for several different reasons. For instance, a product may have particularly low pollutant or noise emissions, give off less waste material in its production, or be more recyclable than competing products.
Eco-labeling programs increase awareness of environmental issues, set high standards for firms to work towards, and help reduce consumer uncertainty regarding a product's environmental benefits. Thus far, however, the U.S. government has resisted instituting an officially-sanctioned eco-labeling program.
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Coddington, Walter. Environmental Marketing . New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.
Elkington, John, Julia Hailes, and Joel Makower. The Green Consumer . 1993.
Meiklejohn, Gregg. "The Marketing Value of Environmental Stewardship." Direct Marketing. October 2000.
Meyer, Harvey. "The Greening Corporate America." Journal of Business Strategy. January 2000.
Ottman, Jacquelyn A. "Back Up Green Programs with Corporate Credibility." Marketing News. October 28, 1998.
Ottman, Jacquelyn A. Green Marketing . NTC Business Books, 1993.
Rehak, Robert. Greener Marketing and Advertising: Charting a Responsible Course . Rodale Press, 1993.
Shi, J. Stephen, and Jane M. Kane. "Green Issues." Business Horizons. January-February 1996.
Stoeckle, Andrew, et al. "Green Consumerism and Marketing." Encyclopedia of the Environment, Ruth A. Eblen and William R. Eblen, eds. Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
Zinkhan, George M., and Les Carlson. "Green Advertising and the Reluctant Consumer." Journal of Advertising. Summer 1995.
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