The modern world is all about sustainability and going green because people start to develop an environmental conscience. They begin to realize that planet Earth requires support and care not only on words, but some real action is needed. Therefore, people start to rethink their consumption, making it more eco-friendly, thoughtful, and sustainable. If some years before sustainability was associated in the minds of the people, especially business owners, with substantial expenses, now it equates to a competitive advantage. Sustainability did not go cheap and required serious investments to make it worth to the consumers. While not many people were interested in going green and supporting environmental development another couple of decades ago, now the situation has changed dramatically. The era of consumerism is gradually changing into the era of sustainable decisions and enhanced recognition of the crucial environmental issues. The basis of general engagement with sustainability can be found within the desire of the public to follow the influencers and socially-recognized individuals like celebrities, artists, politicians, and scientists. They set the trends by joining the cause and attempting to struggle for a better future for the next generations. Another important point regarding the causation of sustainable practices and thinking green is within the economic and market developments. The expectations of the consumers change as they start to demand from the manufacturers to produce the goods that have minimal or zero environmental impact. Sustainable production offers a serious competitive advantage over the companies on the market. A shift to sustainable technologies and productions characterizes the brand as the one open to the public, comprehensive, caring for the well-being without being profit-oriented and revenue-driven. In the eyes of the public, sustainability correlates with responsibility and reliability. Therefore, younger generations try to choose in favor of the preservation of the natural environment and biodiversity if not for the sake of the planet, than to ensure personal beneficence.  

The prevalence of sustainability as a priority of the consumers when selecting where to make a purchase and what specifically to buy can be explained by the deep “counterculture roots” (Miller & Stovall, 2019, p. 9). Those roots are associated with the detailed evaluation of the presented and offered product and assessment of the assortment on the market. The trend of the latest years suggests that consumption should be driven by the characteristics of the products, goods, and services. The primary focus should be kept on the sustainability of the manufacturing process because without going green the planet will soon go devastated. For sure, some of the consumers fall out of the picture and fail to comprehend the importance of sustainability. In these cases, only the increase of awareness and implementing changes to the public policies (Paddock, 2017, p. 123) might bring positive changes to collective actions through the individualized form of influence. When the public knows more and has a better level of awareness about environmental problems and the simplicity of their solutions.

The overall progress correlated with green business and sustainability that can be achieved through effective cooperation between the people and organizations is associated with specific actions. It can be done in the following ways: 1) rethinking consumption, suggesting that consumption should be improved by consuming less but more efficient. 2) Sustainable consumption should be driven by the recognition of shared responsibility for the future. 3) Every stakeholder within the given situation (organization, people, and the government) should collaborate and cooperate on the issue of sustainability and ensure effective participation in the developmental and implementation processes and procedures to make sustainable solutions a part of the future. Finally, 4) consumers should require sustainable solutions and implementation of the revised programs and green solutions for production and use of the resources.

References

Miller, J. C., & Stovall, T. (2019). The “right to consume”? Re-thinking the dynamics of exclusion/inclusion in consumer society. Consumption Markets & Culture. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/10253866.2018.1562712

Paddock, J. (2017). Household consumption and environmental change: Rethinking the policy problem through narratives of food practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17(1), 122-39. doi: 0.1177/1469540515586869