Integrating Green Marketing Principles into Supply Chain Management

As a discipline, marketing has always followed the social and economic development, thus being a reflection of prevalent social and economic relations. Accordingly, growing environmental awareness at all levels and the emergence of a new consumer segment – the so-called green consumers – has given rise to green marketing. Green marketing implies cooperation with suppliers and retailers, partners and even competitors in order to achieve ecologically sustainable development throughout the value chain. At the same time, there is an internal requirement for cooperation between all the business functions so as to find the best possible solutions, guided by two major ideas: profits and long-term positive impact on the environment (both society and nature). To attain environmentally friendly products, starting with raw materials, production and trade, all the way to the end consumer (sometimes also in the reverse direction), i.e. at all levels of supply chain, the practice has developed, and the theory defined complex interorganizational processes known as Green (i.e. environmentally responsible) Supply Chain Management. This paper is based on three key assumptions: 1. A product's impact on the environment is observable throughout its manufacturing, consumption and disposal processes; 2. Green consumers and other stakeholders demand from manufacturers to demonstrate their environmental responsibility every step of the way: material purchasing, processes implemented during production, as well as packaging; ways of product distribution, sales and disposal; 3. Integrating green marketing principles into all the stages of the supply chain enables companies to achieve synergistic effects in their efforts to reduce environmental impacts, and to raise their credibility with all the stakeholders, reducing their costs at the same time. The paper aims to emphasize how essential it is to integrate green marketing principles and procedures into supply chain management, and to discuss long-term economic cost-effectiveness of such measures in today's market which requires socially and environmentally aware marketing.