3 Green marketing and green
consciousness in India
Devleena Ghosh and Amit Jain
In front of the Cornersmith Café in Marrickville, Sydney, there is a long queue of
mostly black-clad young people waiting patiently for a table. Others have put their
names down on a waiting list and promise to return later. The café is small, the
food as good as many other inner-Sydney cafes, but its attraction lies mostly in its
“green” credentials. Their website proudly announces, “We believe in sustainable
and ethical food production and business practices. We have a seasonal menu
and use locally-sourced produce from small-scale growers and makers, ethically
produced meats, and a whole lot of our housemade pickles” (Cornersmith 2010).
For between $140 and $150, you can learn to preserve, with or without sugar,
make gluten-free products, or bake pastries.
Cornersmith is an apposite example of how successful green credentials can be.
It has been able to deploy its focus on local produce and environmental concerns
as responsible and ethical consumption, thereby attracting customers who pride
themselves on their ecological priorities. The classes in pickling and baking add
value to their enterprise and enhance their brand. A friend, on learning about the
pickling classes, said in horror: “Our mothers fought patriarchy so we wouldn’t
have to do this any more!” She was only partially joking.
The Cornersmith patron is, on the other hand, an excellent example of the
ecologically responsible consumer who is increasingly concerned about the
protection of the environment. They are usually well-educated, middle-class
citizens who are also aware that environmental problems are complex and persistent
and willingly acknowledge that scattered individual efforts are not sufficient for
significant change (Amine 2003). In this context, the consumer and the citizen are
not discrete entities; the concerns of one inform the behavior of the latter.
These niche consumers value sustainably and ethically produced consumer
goods. Since 1987, the Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” (World
Commission on Environment and Development 1987) highlighted environmental
issues, saying,
We came to see that a new development path was required, one that sustained
human progress not just in a few pieces for a few years, but for the entire
planet into the distant future. Thus “sustainable development” becomes a
goal not just for the ‘developing’ nations, but for industrial ones as well.