Green Marketing Initiatives and Sustainable Issues in Hotel Industry

Introduction

Green Marketing concept is emerged in the late 1980s. The term describes an organization’s efforts at designing, promoting, pricing and distributing products that will not harm the environment. It has been defined as the management process that is responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying the requirements of customers and society in a profitable and sustainable way (Chan E.S.W 2013). Green marketing means the marketing of products and services which are environment friendly. The green marketing has originated under three phases according to Peattie (2001), first phase was termed as “Ecological” green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was “Environmental” green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third phase was “Sustainable” green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000. The concept is not restricted to only products but also services. The emergence of green hotels has taken a prominent step and has become major issue in today’s scenario because of the increasing concern of environment in the eyes of consumers.