Environmental Goods and Services: Developments of the Concept, the Economic Sector, and the Markets

Abstract

Green (environmental) marketing, which promotes cleaner, less detrimental products, is considered to be one of the main contributors to sustainable production and consumption. With the latest EU policy initiatives aimed at acceleration of green transition, it deserves even more attention while the concept of environmental goods and services still remains a subject for discussion, and both comparative environmental impact of some of such products and the green demand probably are overestimated. The studies offer an approach to the theoretical concept of environmental goods and services providing the integrated vision through the prism of the ecological economics, national accounting, and marketing with the initial point of green (environmental) needs. To understand full potential of marketing for environmental sustainability, which is of growing importance, the studies address the sole purpose environmental products also as those which are beyond the green marketing efforts, but playing the equally important role. Production of environmental goods and services by the EU economy is analysed with special attention to groups of products by their primary purpose, and conclusions are drawn regarding the sustainability potential of different fields of marketing.