Turning Consumers Green: From Green Marketing Myopia to Our 2020 Vision

Abstract

Sustainability appears to be at a tipping point. Once a marginalized concept, fighting for attention, today thousands of the world's largest corporations and small businesses, national and local governments, professions, universities, and institutions are incorporating sustainability initiatives into their operations and strategic planning.1 Pressured by government policy, corporate self-interests, and social expectations, leading companies are taking actions across their value chains, potentially redefining their roles in society and pursuing the triple bottom line in order to respect people, planet, and profit. While sustainability warrants significant political and systematic changes throughout society, in this article, we focus on one integral component: consumers. Surveys indicate that 30 to 70 percent of consumers say they want to buy greener, but only 1 to 5 percent actually do.2 Consequently, while many businesses have started to make great strides in greening themselves and their supply chains, they have often left customers out of their calculus. This must change. For 2020 and beyond, we encourage businesses to incorporate consumers into their sustainability agendas by persuading them to act more responsibly and adopt environmentally-preferable products. We offer businesses five principles, drawn from case studies, marketing trends, and the academic literature, to help nudge consumers to go green. Our principles may serve as an initial guide for businesses to identify strategies to meet customer needs and convince them of the benefits of living more sustainably.