Green Marketing

Green marketing refers to a broad range of activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy human needs or wants, with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment. It involves adopting resource conserving and environmental friendly strategies in all stages of the value chain. Other synonymous terms such as sustainable marketing and environmental marketing have also been used to denote this term. They are perceived as costefficient, effective, and just tools of handling problems related to the impact of economic activity on the environment and are often a means of sustainable competitive advantage.

Several companies have proactively implemented green marketing programs to improve their business offerings in several different ways. Some recent notable examples follow:

• British Petroleum has committed to spending $350 million on energy-efficient products over several years and is aggressively promoting its environmental awareness programs.
• General Electric is spending $1.5 billion on its Ecoimagination in researching for less polluting technologies and promoting them as well.
• Starbucks recently announced the donation of $10 million over the next 5 years for clean drinking water around the world through the sale of its Ethos bottled water. The company already offers coffees that offer fair pay for growers and environmentally sound cultivation.
• 3M encourages employees to participate in its Pollution Prevention Pays program. Since 1974, the program has eliminated over $2 billion pounds of air, water, and solid waste pollutants from the environment.
• The largest home and garden center chain, Home Depot, has discontinued the sale of wood products from endangered forests since 2002.

In addition to firms, major global bodies such as the United Nations have urged better “green” planning by asking cities to hold tree plantings and cleanups throughout the world. Even buildings, such as the presidential library for Bill Clinton, offer a “green” focus and feature environmentally friendly construction. Industry-based associations are actively encouraging green marketing programs—the U.S. Green Building Council is responsible for certifying and promoting environmentally responsible and high-performance buildings, while the Green Seal organization awards green seals to products that meet rigorous environmental standards, which in turn helps consumers identify products that are environmentally safe.