Green Marketing: Definition and Benefits

Green Marketing

• It involves the marketing of products presumed to be environmentally safe for consumers.
• It includes a wide array of activities like:
  • Product modification
  • Changes in production processes
  • Adapting advertising messages
  • Altering product packaging

Green Marketing Definitions

• Retailing Definition: The marketing of products presumed to be environmentally safe.
• Social Marketing: Development and marketing of products designed to reduce negative environmental effects or improve quality.
• Environmental Definition: Efforts by organizations to produce, promote, package, and reclaim products in ecologically sensitive and responsive ways.

Benefits of Environmental Management

• Minimizes environmental impact.
• Reduces energy usage and waste, which saves money.
• Streamlines waste handling and disposal.
• Ensures compliance with environmental legislation.
• Enhances brand and product reputation.
• Increases profitability and sales opportunities.
• Minimizes environmental risks.
• Improves risk management initiatives.

Top 5 Environmental Concerns in 2024, according to Earth.Org

• Global Warming from Fossil Fuels: 2023 was the hottest year on record, with average global temperatures 1.46C above pre-industrial levels and 0.13C higher than 2016 data.
• Poor Governance: Policy makers have been urged to increase the costs associated with activities that emit greenhouse gases.
• Food Waste: Economists and environmentalists urge policymakers to increase price related activities emitting greenhouse gases.
• Plastic Pollution: In 1950, the world produced more than 2 million tons of plastic per year, and, by 2015, annual production swelled to 419 million tons.

Components of Environmental Management

• Environmental Perception and Public Awareness
• Environmental Education and Training
• Resource Management
• Control of Environmental Degradation and Pollution
• Environmental Impact Assessment

Principles of Environmental Management

• Polluter Pays Principle (PPP): Firms discharging polluting effluents should pay a price related to the environmental damage caused.
• User Pays Principle (UPP): Resource users should pay the full long-run marginal cost of the resource use and related services, including associated treatment costs; applied when resources are being used and consumed.
• The Precautionary Principle: Aims to prevent substances or activities posing environmental threats, even without conclusive scientific proof of direct environmental damage.
• Principle of Effectiveness and Efficiency: Efficiency in resource use is also possible when using policy instruments that create incentive to minimize wasteful use and environmental governance.
• The Principle of Responsibility: All persons, corporations, and states are responsible to maintain the ecological processes, and fair access the environmental resources.
• The Principle of Participation: Requires all persons to participate in collectively environmental decision making activities.
• The Principle of Proportionality: Intended to maintain balance between economic development and environmental protection, with adjustments to both based on the interests of all stakeholders.

Goals of Environmental Management

• Prevention and resolution of environmental problems
• Establishing limits
• Establishing and nurturing institutions that effectively support environmental research, monitoring, and management
• Warning of threats and identifying opportunities
• Sustaining, and if possible improving, existing resources
• Improving quality of life where possible
• Identifying new technology or useful policies

Reasons for Studying Green Marketing

• Environmental Benefits: The environmental is the obvious benefactor, and green marketing impacts climate change.
• Developing Economies: Green marketing for nations with relatively low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
• Consumer Benefits: Consumer's benefit through green marketing, influencing consumer decision-making.
• Strategic Benefits: Corporate managers realize multiple benefits from a green oriented approach to marketing and mission statements.
• Product Benefits: Relates to the outputs and services designed to benefit the consumer.
• Production Process Benefits: Production processes with organizational efforts to produce the highest quality products at the lowest possible cost
• Supply-Chain Benefits: Focus on eliminating waste and improving efficiency throughout the supply chain.