Transformative green marketing: Impediments and opportunities Michael Jay Polonsky ⁎ School of Management and Marketing, Deakin University, 70 Elgar Road, Burwood VIC 3125, Australia abstract article info Article history: Accepted 22 January 2011 Available online 18 February 2011 Keywords: Green marketing Marketing and society Sustainability Systems thinking Transformative marketing Green marketing is not achieving its potential for improving the quality of life of consumers, while improving the natural ecosystem. The failure is the result of the inability of consumers, firms and governments to adopt systems thinking, in which macro-marketing perspectives are integrated into their respective micro-decisions, that is, the anthropocentric view of the natural world is disregarded. The paper discusses why the three groups above have had difficulties in embracing environmental issues, thus impeding real transformative green marketing from occurring. To address the difficulties three proposed actions need to be undertaken: (1) Marketers need to look for new ways of calculating and communicating value that integrates environmental value, thereby moving away from financial measures which have no real environmental meaning. (2) Change the discourse regarding the environment, highlighting the importance of action and inaction, which needs to be based on increased education about the human–environment interface. (3) Marketing needs to refocus its emphasis on want satisfaction, shifting away from the acquisition of goods, thereby enhancing how marketers create value. Making these changes will allow marketers to operationalize transformative green marketing so the human condition and the natural system that humans operate within are both improved and bring about transformative green marketing. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Marketing academics' and practitioners' interest in how environmental issues impact marketing activities continue to grow (Chamorro et al., 2009), but is certainly not new (Fisk, 1974; Henion and Kinnear, 1976). A range of marketing contexts examines the interface between the natural environment and; consumer behavior (i.e., Diamantopoulos et al., 2003), marketing strategy (i.e., Menon and Menon, 1997), public policy initiatives (i.e., Press and Arnould, 2009) and macromarketing (i.e., Kilbourne and Carlson, 2008). Fisk (1974) suggests marketing is at least partly to blame for most of the world's environmental ills that often arise from consumption and over-consumption. Other authors suggest that marketing can assist in addressing environmental and other social problems (Sheth and Sisodia, 2006). Unfortunately, much of the existing research fails to embed environmental issues as a core tenet of marketing thinking. Thus, marketing strategists often incorporate environmental considerations as an extra feature to be leveraged for competitive advantage (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004), rather than using the environment to shape strategy-improving market conditions and social welfare. Scholars define green marketing using a range of terms (e.g., green marketing, ecological marketing, environmental marketing, and even responsible marketing). These definitions have a common focus on the exchange process (i.e., choices and decisions), with a proviso that exchange considers and minimizes environmental harm (where all parities are assumed to be aware of all potential environmental harm). Whether or not these definitions (and associated practices) seek to improve the quality of life of the world's citizens, or improve the natural environment, remains unclear. An effective definition of green marketing, therefore, must integrate transformative change that creates value for individuals and society, as well as for the natural environment (i.e., environmental restoration and improvement). Thus, transforma- tive green marketing is very different from a marketing perspective that focuses on not producing societal harm, as, at present, most marketers focus on meeting human needs rather than enhancing mankind's quality of life and improving the natural environment. Marketers and society rely on nature and natural resources; nature does not rely on humanity, even though society can negatively impact on it. Therefore, mankind (and, thus, marketing) and the natural environment are interdependent. While some might debate the extent of mankind's contribution to environmental problems, if the doomsayers are correct, failure to act in the medium term will result in the inability of the ecosystem to support present day consumption, potentially eliminating marketing as presently practiced (and possibly mankind). Therefore, it is surprising that the practice of marketing (and business strategy more generally) does not explicitly integrate and address environmental issues and how they impact society (Smart, 2010). In the not-so-distant past, businesses were quick to respond to less significant marketing-related problems. For example, firms, consumers and governments reportedly spent hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars dealing with the Journal of Business Research 64 (2011) 1311–1319 ⁎ Tel.: +61 3 9244 6968, +61 3 9251 7083(International). E-mail address: Michael.Polonsky@deakin.edu.au. 0148-2963/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.01.016 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research