Environmental Marketing -An Innovative Approach

The fragile environment is undergoing unsustainable levels of stress from growing population, with their ever increasing needs and wants. Fast depletion of resources, shrinking of water bodies, desertification, pollution are some of the major problems the present generation faces. Scientists bring to our attention complex but urgent problems that are bearing on our very survival-a warming globe, acid precipitation, threats to ozone layer, accumulation of green house gases, deserts consuming agricultural land, fast depletion of vital natural resources, the disappearance of rain forests and loss of species. The ecological crisis is the outcome of the human impact on nature. Unbridled access to natural resources by the corporate business is considered the primary source for the present crisis. If the present trend of overdrawing of resources is allowed, it would result in environmental catastrophe which would ultimately paralyze the trade, industry and commerce. The present paper is an attempt to look into this danger. ‘Waste’ is an antecedent of pollution. Waste, particularly solid waste, is the resultant output of our consumption. The present marketing does not have any strategy to address this problem. Therefore, a new concept viz., Environmental Marketing, which considers nature as one of its customers, is fast emerging. As part of Environmental Marketing, a survey was conducted to know the environmental awareness. Friedman ANOVA was applied to know which problem was considered most serious to be addressed immediately. Accordingly, solid waste, the most important problem, responsible for global warming has to be addressed immediately. The paper also provides a model to solve this problem.