Sustainable Consumption And Marketing: Strategies And Initiatives

“Marketers are not doing enough in directing their target Markets toward Sustainable Consumptions”

You are required to respond to the statement above and write the responses in an essay format.

Consumer policy think-tank’s may make a more meaningful impact on sustainable consumption patterns from the environmental and social angles. The UN now embody programs  focusing on extensive research on the topic of sustainable consumption, promoting institutional practices based on sustainability and recycling, inspiring life cycle thought processes that have the emphasis on formulating eco-products, and creating benchmarks in the domain of controlling and checking any relevant environmental norms. According to Defila (2014, p. 121), sustainable consumption programs can enhance unity and win synergies across the board of policies: consumer, economic, education, environmental, social, etc. Countries famous for upholding comprehensive strategies in alignment with sustainable consumption are Czech Republic, Austria, Norway, Finland, Poland, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Germany and Hungary, along with Greece are found in conflict for improving local policies focusing on sustainable consumption and production (In Genus, 2016, pp. 98-103). UK and Sweden are amongst the OECD countries that have end to end sustainable consumption modules or action plans.

As stated by In Cohen, In Brown & In Vergragt (2014, p. 341), the UK sustainable consumption agenda highlights on an effective policy mix in the domains of waste and recycling,  energy efficiency, food and water usage. The year 2004 marked the construction of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable by the UK, which was collaboration between the National Consumer Council and the Sustainable Development Commission, to formulate strategies. The Czech Republic Model of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production came up after the implementation of the idea of equivalent set of people led by the Minister of Environment. The National Council for Sustainable Development in France, a citizens’ unit and regulator creates strategies on sustainable consumption actions (Reisch & Thøgersen, 2017, p. 191), in Germany, the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) formulates policies on sustainable consumption and production in the year 2004 by which the stakeholders were found to be satisfied. Certain nations focus on sustainable consumption in holistic strategies (Belgium, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Norway). As per Davies, Fahy & Rau (2016, pp. 34-52), out of all the OECD countries, most of them are known to have consumption indicators in their overall strategies that include: household products, share of overweight or obese people; water and electricity consumption; extent of green public procurement; generation of household waste and eco-label awards by product group.

Conclusion

As stated by Jones (2016, p. 90), most of the OECD countries across the globe are considering holding public communications campaigns for the purpose of enhancing sustainable consumption. Previously, the campaigns were elaborated in nature, to assist environment-friendly purchases, i.e. Consumption and Environment in Demark, Education for Consumption in Mexico, Green Purchasing Network in Japan, EcoBuyer Campaign in Finland. Recent communications campaigns are engaging when it comes to providing advice on practical actions, and strategies of tackling of multi-media. Government campaigns are often targeted in inspiring eco-friendly consumption habits. One such country is Japan that is creating diversified and multidimensional cultural traditions to enhance sustainable packaging and recycling through the 3R campaign (Erdog?du, Arun & Ahmad, 2016, pp. 190-212). In the United States, local authorities lent money to the advertising campaign on Water, to promote a wise use of it, which brings into focus efficient ways by which water can be saved in the immediate surroundings. One interesting fact is that in France, a government-sponsored television and radio campaign in 2006 spread awareness among the common mass on the different strategies that can be applied to improve conditions related to climate change and biodiversity loss. According to McEachern & Carrigan (2015, p. 231), communications campaigns are becoming more and more popular in sensitizing socially-conscious consumption. Initiatives have place emphasis on people to quit smoking and on the anti-obesity campaigns in the United States, Germany and United Kingdom, targeted at lessening intake of junk foods by children (Li, 2016, pp. 101-123).  The German Development Co-operation Ministry carried out a large scale campaign with the amount of €3.3 million to promote and spread awareness on the utilization of fair trade goods under the theme Fair Feels Good.

According to Armstrong et al., (2015, pp. 141-167), there are a number of tools that have made a significant impact on sustainable consumer choices. One such tool is voluntary labeling. Research indicates that this tool has led to an increase of consumption of more products in the different countries when reviewed for the last few years. The labels that have been indicated as feasible are those where verification of environmental or social claims are done by a third party, such as governments as well as private organizations. These labels might be multi-criteria in nature that do relative views of their products or might be single issue labels which point to particular environmental or social characteristics of a product, like organic cotton, dolphin-safe tuna, or sustainable forestry. These labels are most effective when they generate information to large scale consumers on sustainability in a lucid manner (Kahle & Gurel-Atay, 2015, p. 412). The most popular environmental or eco-labels with high levels of consumer recognition and impact on producers are the Nordic Swan (introduced in 1989) and the German Blue Angel (introduced in 1977). The latter is applied to some 3 800 products of about 710 companies, while the former includes high numbers of products and has consumer recognition of up to 90%.

According to Jones (2016, p. 90), names of other countries that have national eco-label schemes encompass the European Union (the Flower), Canada (Environmental Choice), the Czech Republic, Austria, Japan (Eco Mark), France (NF Environnement), Netherlands, United States 30 (Green Seal) and the Sweden (Environmental Choice). Countries such as Austria, Czech Republic have their eco-labeling programs approved by governments while the others have non-governmental agencies or organizations to look after them, such as Germany, Japan.

Marks & Spencers is UK’s leading retailer, dealing with food, clothing, and homeware. It was in the year 2006 that the company decided to place the concept of sustainability at the centre stage of all business processes. It transformed all the facets of the company, such as sales and customer relationships (Defila, 2014, p. 121). The pillars of the retailer’s plan on sustainable consumption were: Climate change: to transform M&S’s operations as carbon-neutral, Reducing waste: to have zero waste moving to landfill by recycling bags and packaging, Sustainable raw materials: to purchase the resources that are sustainable and renewable, Being a fair partner: to bring improvements in the lifestyles of millions of people and their families, Health: to aid thousands of employees and customers take up a healthier lifestyle (Reisch & Thøgersen, 2017, p. 191).

It is noted that the success of the retailer company’s sustainability plan was significant as so much of tangible change was highlighted like: lessening 10,000 tons of packaging, moving 20,000 tons of waste from landfill, stopped emitting 40,000 tons of CO2, stopped using 387 million food carrier bags (an 83% reduction), handled 1,500 tons of recycled polyester (equal to 37 million bottles), organic food sales in 2008 higher by 40% relative to 2006, created 100 million liters of water by bettering its use (Li, 2016, pp. 101-123).

Conclusion

Public communications campaigns are common in the OECD countries that have the objective of enhancing sustainable consumption. Recent communications campaigns are engaging regarding suggestions and piece of recommendations on practical actions, and tackling effectively the multi-media. Government campaigns are often targeted in inspiring eco-friendly consumption habits. Among the different tools for impacting sustainable consumer choices, voluntary labeling increased to use of more products and countries in recent years. These can be multi-criteria labels or single issue labels. It can be concluded that marketers are not enough to promote sustainable consumption.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Trifts, V., Buchwitz, L. A., & Gaudet, D. (2015). Marketing: An introduction. Toronto : Pearson, pp. 141-167.

Davies, A., Fahy, F., & Rau, H. (2016). Challenging consumption: Pathways to a more sustainable future. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, pp. 34-52.

Defila, R. (2014). Sustainable consumption. Munich: Oekom-Verl, p. 121.

Erdog?du, M. M., Arun, T., & Ahmad, I. H. (2016). Handbook of research on green economic development initiatives and strategies. Hershey, PA, USA: Business Science Reference, pp. 190-212.

In Cohen, M. J., In Brown, H. S., & In Vergragt, P. (2014). Innovations in sustainable consumption: New economics, socio-technical transitions and social practices. Cheltenham : Edward Elgar, p. 341.

In Genus, A. (2016). Sustainable consumption: Design, innovation and practice. Cham: Springer, pp. 98-103.

Jones, A. (2016). Services and the Green Economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 90.

Kahle, L. R., & Gurel-Atay, E. (2015). Communicating sustainability for the green economy. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, p. 412.

Li, X. (2016). Environmental advertising in China and the USA: The desire to go green. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 101-123.

McEachern, M. G., & Carrigan, M. (2015). Contemporary issues in green and ethical marketing. Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, p. 231.

Reisch, L. A., & Thøgersen, J. (2017). Handbook of Research on Sustainable Consumption. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 191.