By Dr. Swapnali Borah
The idea of green consumerism is very much important in this decade to popularize among all sections of society to save the planet Earth. World over, economic development has come at the cost of environment only. Global warming, an outcome of greenhouse gas emission, is the price the world pays for its over ambitious growth. It is a movement to encourage people to buy food and other products such as organic food, lead-free petrol etc. which are considered as environmental friendly. It refers to recycling, purchasing and using eco-friendly products that minimize damage to the environment. The root of green consumerism was in 1987, when a British Company called the Body Shop won the UK “Company of the Year” Business Enterprise Awards. The Body Shop was then “riding high on a wave of green consumerism’ as an outlet for “Cruelty – free, minimally packaged, natural ingredient soaps. It was expanding at the rate of 20 new outlets a year and its extraordinary success helped to inspire several authors to write about green economics and green consumerism. It was around that time when Margaret Thatcher declared herself as green. As green consumerism germinated in early 1989, the popular media rushed to inform the public about their new responsibility to consume green or environmental friendly product.
More and more business and industries are joining in the green movement, either out of a real interest in saving the planet or a desire to capitalize on the growing consumer demand for greener ways. In India, though consumerism is gaining momentum after 1991, when India threw her doors open to international trade, and the situation changed dramatically and so did consumerism in India, but green consumerism is not getting due priority, so it is growing in very slow pace.
As a majority of Indian consumers are comparatively poor, their choice of products is naturally chiefly influenced by price. Other issues, such as environmental impact, play little role in their choice of products. As environmentally friendly products usually cost more, only consumers with higher purchasing power are willing to pay the premium price because of their concern for environment.
Government, business organizations and consumers are triad for green consumerism in India. Government of India has already taken initiative by imposing many rules and regulations regarding environmental preservation across the country, like imposing the use of CNG buses and auto rickshaws in cities like Delhi, Ahmadabad etc. to curb pollution. This calls for automobile makers to stick to the environmental norms and also come up with some new innovative technologies, which are environmental friendly. The manufacture, sale and use of recycled plastic bags for storing, carrying or packaging food items has been banned in Kerala and a few other states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh including Meghalaya also has banned the use of polythene bags. The Government of India has also launched the Eco-labeling scheme known as Eco- Marks. The Scheme was launched with a view to provide an incentive for manufacturers and importers to reduce the detrimental impact of the products, assist consumers to become environmental friendly in their daily lives. However it is unfortunate that not a single product in the Indian market bears an Eco-Mark (R. Marvin M, 2012).
Many business organization mainly in corporate sector have started incorporating green activities however these activities are done as a part of either a corporate social responsibility or as a part of corporate sustainability. Royal Dutch Shell operated LNG Plant in Hazira which is one of the company’s largest ventures in India is completely a green business. Hero Honda has been consistently been working towards the elimination of harmful substances such as asbestos and hexavalent chromium from its products. JK Tyres developed eco-friendly tyres and launched them on the world environment day on June 5, 2002.
Government and business organizations have already started their initiatives in the greening process. In India, a very few consumers are green conscious. They seek green goods like ayurvedic medicines, natural dyes, natural textiles, bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticides, organic foods, herbal cosmetics etc. The demand and knowledge about green products and services is very less among the Indian consumers. It is also believed that whatsoever little demand exists in the market exists out of the reason of the economy that it provides and not out of the environment friendliness of the consumer (Tikoo, 1998).
Considering the bad impacts on environment, environmentalism is a major concern and firms are forced to adopt environmentally friendly market practices such as developing and marketing products which are recyclable, more fuel efficient, less polluting, bio-degradable and reusable. Government and NGO’s have to play an important role on marketing green ideas more intensively to make people more aware and knowledgeable about environmental issues and problems, so that there will be a new breed of green minded consumers to keep themselves healthy as well as there will be a great contribution to preserve our planet healthy for our next generations.
(The author is Associate Professor & HOD, Dept. of Family Resource Management College of Home Science Central Agricultural University Tura, Meghalaya)