Green consumption

Green consumption, is closely related to the notions of sustainable development or sustainable consumer behaviour. It is a form of consumption that is compatible with the safeguard of the environment for the present and for the next generations. It is a concept which ascribes to consumers responsibility or co-responsibility for addressing environmental problems through adoption of environmentally friendly behaviors, such as the use of organic products, clean and renewable energy and the research of goods produced by companies with zero, or almost, impact. Green consumption, is closely related to the notions of sustainable development or sustainable consumer behaviour. It is a form of consumption that is compatible with the safeguard of the environment for the present and for the next generations. It is a concept which ascribes to consumers responsibility or co-responsibility for addressing environmental problems through adoption of environmentally friendly behaviors, such as the use of organic products, clean and renewable energy and the research of goods produced by companies with zero, or almost, impact. In Western societies, during the ‘60s and the early ‘70s, the necessity to protect the environment and the people health from the effects caused by industrial pollutants and by the continuous growth of economic and population has developed this new idea of consumption. In the 1980s first American 'green' brands began to appear and exploded on the American market. During the 1990s green products had a slow mild growth, remaining a niche phenomenon. American interest in green products . started to increase again in the early 2000s with greater speed and, despite the latest recession, it has been continuing to grow. The origin of the necessity to behave in an environmental-friendly way goes back to the 1960s and '70s. In particular, after the oil crisis of 1973, Western countries start to think about the use of renewable energy, as an alternative to fossil fuel. Nowadays green consumption is considered a basic point of environmental reform and it is also guaranteed by supra-national organizations like the European Union. Some sociologists argue that after the increasing globalization, people feel more interconnected with other people and the environment, so there has been increasing awareness of global environmental problems, especially in western countries. The main forums in which the issue has been discussed, and provided guidelines to orient national governments are: Stockholm 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment; IUCN 1980 World Conservation Strategy; World Commission on Environment and Development in 1983 and 1987 Brundtland Report; Italy 1993 National Plan for Sustainable Development; Aalborg 1994, 1st European Conference on Sustainable Cities; Lisbon 1996, 2nd European Conference on Sustainable Cities; Hannover 2000, 3rd Conference on Sustainable Cities; European Union in 2001, VI Environmental Action Plan 2002/2010; Aalborg +10 and the Aalborg Commitments in 2004. Green consumer behavior is a form of pro-environmental behavior, which can be defined as a form of consumption that harms the environment as little as possible, or even benefits the environment. Past research has provided empirical support to the claim that green or pro-environmental consumer behavior is a multidimensional construct which is composed of: The contextual factors such as monetary incentives, costs, regulations, public policy norms, as well as subjectively perceived factors such as perceived resources available have a strong impact on consumer pro-environmental behavior and thus green consumption through the mediating effect of attitudes. In sum, it is through attitude, that subjectively perceived contextual factors such as, for example, the extent to which consumers perceive having more or less time, money and power available, modulate pro-environmental behavior, in general, and green consumption, in particular.