The New Rules of Green Marketing

5Innovate for sustainability

Almost daily, new scientific data become available, suggesting that humans will need to tread significantly more lightly on the planet to meet our future needs sustainably. In short, all signs point toward present modes of production and consumption being unsustainable. This issue is especially critical for U.S. consumers whose lifestyles are the least sustainable on the planet and, to boot, are emulated or aspired to by billions of other consumers in emerging economies and developing nations. According to the U.S. EPA, in 2006 American households threw away more than 251 million tons of trash. The bulk of this waste ended up in landfills, consuming vast quantities of energy to transport and potentially adding toxic ...