1 Introduction
Information regarding the environmental performance of products or organisations
plays a more and more important role in consumers’ decisions. There are different
communication vehicles and many strategies of green marketing which allow
incorporating environmental information into the communication between various
stakeholders representing both sides of the market (supply and demand). A way of
performing this incorporation has come a long way from disclosing general,
qualitative, unverified and single-issue information (“bio”, “eco”, “eco-friendly”) to
move toward verified, quantitative, specific and multi-issue statements.
Sustainability has become an integral aspect of product quality and organisation
image and it goes beyond a single environmental dimension. Today the products
don’t need to be declared as green, they just need to be green [1]. Consumers differ
considerably in their sense of sustainability and ecological awareness. Some of
them are not susceptible to greenwashing. They have a tendency to use verified
product-related information taken not only from informal sources, but also from
professionals and trusted third parties [2]. Green consumers—as early adopters and
leaders—influence purchasing behaviour [1]. Also, the role of authorities and idols
(e.g. celebrities) in the popularisation of “sustainable everyday” [3] can be significant [4]. From this perspective, an interesting issue is to ask about the importance
of life cycle thinking (LCT) in communication between producers and consumers.
Of among twenty new rules of green marketing listed by Ottman [1], at least seven
can be directly or indirectly linked with life cycle thinking (LCT) and Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA). However, the above question should not be limited to a
potential role of LCA in marketing communication, but it should also address the
issue of measuring the effectiveness of this communication. While papers on the
former issue can be found in the literature, only single examples of work on
the latter were found. Moreover, no information was found about the research on
using neuroscience to measure the effectiveness of communication based on the
results of LCA. For this reason, a core goal of this paper is to present a procedure
and a methodology aimed at estimating the human neurological reaction as a result
of exposure to life cycle based environmental labels and advertisements.
2 Life Cycle Based Environmental Information
as Part of Product-Related Communication
A relationship between eco-design or LCA and green marketing has been discussed
in literature. In 1993, Bhat [5] talked about the general strategies of eco-design (e.g.
Design for Disassembly, Design for Recycling, and Design for Durability) as a
basis for formulating marketing strategies. While there are many publications about
eco-labelling and green marketing, only a few works can be found regarding a
discussion narrowed to a role of LCA [6–10]. Some authors discussed this issue
164
A. Lewandowska et al.
Information regarding the environmental performance of products or organisations
plays a more and more important role in consumers’ decisions. There are different
communication vehicles and many strategies of green marketing which allow
incorporating environmental information into the communication between various
stakeholders representing both sides of the market (supply and demand). A way of
performing this incorporation has come a long way from disclosing general,
qualitative, unverified and single-issue information (“bio”, “eco”, “eco-friendly”) to
move toward verified, quantitative, specific and multi-issue statements.
Sustainability has become an integral aspect of product quality and organisation
image and it goes beyond a single environmental dimension. Today the products
don’t need to be declared as green, they just need to be green [1]. Consumers differ
considerably in their sense of sustainability and ecological awareness. Some of
them are not susceptible to greenwashing. They have a tendency to use verified
product-related information taken not only from informal sources, but also from
professionals and trusted third parties [2]. Green consumers—as early adopters and
leaders—influence purchasing behaviour [1]. Also, the role of authorities and idols
(e.g. celebrities) in the popularisation of “sustainable everyday” [3] can be significant [4]. From this perspective, an interesting issue is to ask about the importance
of life cycle thinking (LCT) in communication between producers and consumers.
Of among twenty new rules of green marketing listed by Ottman [1], at least seven
can be directly or indirectly linked with life cycle thinking (LCT) and Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA). However, the above question should not be limited to a
potential role of LCA in marketing communication, but it should also address the
issue of measuring the effectiveness of this communication. While papers on the
former issue can be found in the literature, only single examples of work on
the latter were found. Moreover, no information was found about the research on
using neuroscience to measure the effectiveness of communication based on the
results of LCA. For this reason, a core goal of this paper is to present a procedure
and a methodology aimed at estimating the human neurological reaction as a result
of exposure to life cycle based environmental labels and advertisements.
2 Life Cycle Based Environmental Information
as Part of Product-Related Communication
A relationship between eco-design or LCA and green marketing has been discussed
in literature. In 1993, Bhat [5] talked about the general strategies of eco-design (e.g.
Design for Disassembly, Design for Recycling, and Design for Durability) as a
basis for formulating marketing strategies. While there are many publications about
eco-labelling and green marketing, only a few works can be found regarding a
discussion narrowed to a role of LCA [6–10]. Some authors discussed this issue
164
A. Lewandowska et al.