Environmental Management: Principles and practice

Green marketing
Some companies and public bodies had recognized by the early 1980s that a
satisfactory green image could improve public relations, and perhaps provide a
marketing niche (Charter, 1992; Coddington, 1993; Peattie, 1995). There are
manufacturers that have gained from this, and offer genuinely improved
products— e.g. refrigerators that use less electricity, do not leak CFCs, and which
are easier to recycle, and firms which manufacture equipment for monitoring
and managing environmental quality. Less enlightened companies may sell goods
because of public fears about the environment—e.g. sunblock creams and
sunglasses for those afraid of increased UV. AEG reputedly increased sales by
ca. 30 per cent in a static market by running a marketing campaign on its green
strengths. In America in the 1980s McDonald’s commissioned an environmental
audit and acted on it to shift from plastic packaging foamed with CFCs to
environmentally friendly cardboard. This proved good for public relations and
was much cheaper (Elkington and Hailes, 1988).
Consumer protection bodies
Alongside the growth in green marketing there has been a spread of green
consumerism (The Council of Economic Priorities of the United States, 1989; Mintel,
1990; Irvine, 1989). Consumer protection bodies have been active since the 1960s,
and have not been restricted to the developed countries, e.g. one Malaysian body has
been active in its own country and works for consumers elsewhere—the Consumers
Association Penang.
Ecolabelling
The marking of goods to indicate that they are environmentally friendly (ecolabelling)
has been adopted in many countries, including Canada, the USA, Germany and
Sweden (Figure 3.2). In most cases the product is judged against similar goods by an
independent agency to establish whether it has less environmental impact (without
formal eco-auditing). Germany was one of the first countries to introduce ecolabelling
in 1978, with its Umweltzeichen or Blaue Engel system (Hemmelskamp and
Brockmann, 1997). This relies on a jury of experts supervised by the Federal
Environment Ministry to award the right to display a mark on packaging or in adverts.
This is a way of influencing the behaviour of consumers, helping them identify the
environmental impacts of products, and encourages manufacturers to reduce the
impacts of their products.
Ecolabelling assesses environmental impact and communicates this to the
consumer or middle merchant. The focus is on the product and often nothing is
said about the process of production or distribution. So, an ‘environmentally
friendly’ product might come from a factory which causes pollution or present a
disposal problem after use. There is also a need for standardization and policing of
ecolabelling.

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FIGURE 3.2 Ecolabelling
Note: Date of introduction in parenthesis

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CHAPTER THREE
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However, under current World Trade Organization (WTO) rules this may not be
easy. West (1995) warned that without better legal enforcement, it tended to become
a marketing gimmick.