Segmenting Green Consumers in the United States: Implications for Green Marketing

The purpose of the current study was to segment U.S. consumers into four distinct clusters based on their beliefs and motives regarding pro-environmental consumer behavior. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults from Experian Simmons (N = 22,348), this study revealed that: (a) there are four clusters of consumers in the United States with a unique set of beliefs and motives regarding consumer environmentalism; (b) the clusters have distinct demographic and media usage profiles; and (c) the groups have varying responses to the industry's initiatives to protect the environment. Implications of the research are discussed in light of developing message and media strategies for green marketing.     

Green moms: the social construction of a green mothering identity via environmental advertising appeals

This study explores emerging green motherhood discourse as framed by green advertising in pregnancy magazines. It takes an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on reflexive modernization, feminist studies and critical discourse analysis and reveals how advertising represents a double bind for mothers. Textual analysis of a sample of green ads in FitPregnancy indicates ads present expectant mothers with solutions for resolving the challenges of parenting in an age of widespread environmental threat, while simultaneously reinforcing those same lifestyle choices that are thought to exacerbate the environmental crisis. This green mothering discourse appears to empower mothers and offer solutions to the risks of pregnancy, while in reality relegating the mother to the sidelines, rendering her nearly invisible while the child is promoted as the primary subject and brands as sources of expert knowledge. These results speak to the broader ways in which seemingly neutral texts work to frame and reinforce certain ideologies.     

Are Environmental Social Movements Socially Exclusive? An Historical Study from Thailand

Environmental social movements in developing countries are often portrayed as democratizing but may contain important social divisions. This paper presents a new methodology to analyze the social composition and underlying political messages of movements. Nearly 5 000 newspaper reports during 1968–2000 in Thailand are analyzed to indicate the participation of middle and lower classes, and their association with “green” (conservationist) and “red-green” (livelihoods-oriented) environmental values. Results show middle-class “green” activism has dominated forests activism, but lower-class “red-green” activism has grown for forests and pollution. Newspapers, however, portray all environmentalism as “democratization,” suggesting that the possible exclusiveness of some environmental norms is unacknowledged.     

Factors motivating and influencing clothing disposal behaviours

This study of 232 college students was framed by Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action and examined factors that motivate and influence college students' clothing disposal behaviours. Using survey questionnaires, we investigated four different clothing disposal options (resale, donation, reusing and discarding) and examined five motivational factors (environmental, economic, charity and convenience concerns and information unavailability). The influences of attitudes towards the environment and subjective norms of family and friends on clothing disposal behaviours also were examined. Results indicated that resale and donation behaviours were explained by environmental concerns and that reuse and resale behaviours were explained by economic concerns. Charity concerns motivated donation behaviours and convenience motivated discarding behaviours. Further, findings indicated that family subjective norms influenced environmentally motivated resale and donation behaviours.     

International hotel chains and environmental protection: an analysis of Hilton's we care! programme (Europe, 2006–2008)

Using the case study method, this paper evaluates and analyses Hilton's we care! programme for improving the environmental performance of the 70 Hilton Worldwide hotels in operation in Continental Europe in 2006–2008. It explores the practical dimension of “greening” hotel operations in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and demonstrates the close links between CSR and human resource management (HRM) in hotels. It deepens the understanding of corporate environmentalism and seeks to disseminate best practice among hospitality managers. The programme's distinctive and innovative character as well as its weaknesses and strengths are highlighted. Barriers to behavioural change in hotel operation are discussed. The programme involved over 16,000 employees, created hotel-specific action teams linking all employee levels and reduced energy use per square metre by 15%, water use and CO₂ emissions per guest night by 8% each over three years. Avoided utility costs totalled US$16 million, of which US$9.6 million can be attributed to changes in human behaviour. The paper makes a case for a holistic approach that combines the introduction of IT-based measurement and performance-assessing tools with genuine employee empowerment and green awareness raising. The study concludes with future managerial policy recommendations that simultaneously bear upon corporate environmentalism and HRM.     

环境机会主义、问责需求和环境审计

通过分析环境机会主义行为的产生和控制,认为环境机会主义行为的存在和污染容忍度的下降产生了环境问责需要,问责需求产生环境审计。收集环境投资、水环境治理和能源消耗数据,分析其与相关环境审计结果公告之间的关系,发现环境保护的投资问责驱动环境部门的预算执行审计,水环境污染及治理问责驱动水环境审计,节能减排的问责需求驱动节能减排审计,验证了环境审计由环境问责需求产生和变迁的理论构想。     

Can consumers enforce environmental regulations? The role of the market in hazardous waste compliance

We examine the U.S. hazardous waste management industry to assess the role that consumers play in encouraging environmental compliance. We first examine whether environmental performance affects consumer demand and find that noncompliance does decrease demand, at least in the short term. Next we consider whether market characteristics affect compliance behavior. While we do not find evidence that market size affects behavior, local competition does appear to increase compliance. However, as competition becomes less localized, it has a smaller effect. Finally, regardless of the pressures exerted by consumers to comply, commercial managers are less likely to be in compliance than on-site managers. For example, President Bush’s 2006 budget request for EPA significantly cut funding to the states who are responsible for over 95% of environmental inspections (ECOS, 2005). At the federal level, the number of positions for compliance monitoring decreased by over 17% from FY 2001 to FY 2003 (U.S. GAO, 2002).     

Can the circle be squared? An enquiry into shale gas mining in South Africa's Karoo

The prospect of ‘fracking’ for shale gas in South Africa's Karoo has generated heated exchanges in public forums and in the media. This article seeks to understand why common ground in the debate has proved to be so elusive. The article divides the parties to the impasse into three camps and examines the ethical positions which seem to inform each faction's standpoint. The article finds that the tensions between the main protagonists’ positions are due to two related ethical ‘faultlines’. The first revolves around the inherent incompatibility of consequentialism with moral absolutism. The second relates to tensions between nature as an instrumental good, and an ethic that treats nature as an intrinsic good. The discussion considers the merits of cost–benefit analysis and whether, at the very least, exploration for shale gas should be permitted. The article concludes by weighing up the preconditions for a rapprochement being reached between the contending factions.