How relevant are contemporary attempts to encourage 'green Essay

How relevant are contemporary attempts to encourage 'green consumerism' - Essay Example Contemporary educated consumers must be aware of the burning environmental problems as well as informed by the product labeling and according to this knowledge to purchase only the goods which are environment friendly. Such â€Å"new† consumers also should lead a way of life that matches their new â€Å"green† tastes. In the work we are going to examine the roots of â€Å"green consumerism†, its main manifestations and define the impact of this trend on the â€Å"green movement† as a whole. How relevant are contemporary attempts to encourage green consumerism? The idea of â€Å"green consumerism† trend is when the environmental benign awareness enters the life and mind of most people the purchasing force of markets will make all manufacturers to turn their products and production into green. Otherwise these manufacturers will be rejected from the markets by the green customers. According to this strategy, only the manufacturers, which meet the deman ds of greening will preserve their positions on the market. This approach also allows people to participate in decision-making process voting by their credit cards. However, there is another view of green consumerism, according to which the whole mass of consumers is considered to be exploited by misleading advertising appealing to badly-informed environmental consciousness of people. According to the first point of view ecological crisis is the result of low-quality consumption, while according to the second one, this crisis is â€Å"caused not only by the quality but by the volume of consumption† (Goldberg et al, 1997). There are even skeptics who think that the green consumption may increase the environmental problems as it encourages the manufacturers to produce new products under the misconception that they are environmental friendly. Some people respond to green appeals that â€Å"there is no such thing as a green lunch† (cited in Goldberg et al, 1997). Environme ntal sustainability is one of the three key elements of corporate sustainability – other two are economic and social. Although these three elements are interrelated, e environmental one is often stay behind economic and social elements. A cost benefit analysis of environmental management systems found that average pay-back period makes 2 years. According to other studies better management of environmental risks (for example, environmental marketing strategies) are linked to lower cost of competitive advantage. Generally speaking, marketing managers are often concerned about the appropriate shade of green they should apply in their companies. The question is whether a â€Å"deep green† approach can be used in ecological sustainable organization, whether this approach an be considered proactive, long-term oriented, beneficial and preserving the environment. This problem involves a two-fold challenge. First of all marketers should understand which consumer attitudes shoul d be taken into consideration while making green performance assessment. The better marketers understand what makes consumers evaluate â€Å"green strategy† of the organization, the better they will be able to create strategies answering consumer demand. Unfortunately up to date the sufficient investigations of green consumer behavior have not been conducted. The second task for marketing managers is to access how well they are doing within the green conception of their organization. There exists