ABSTRACT
Green consumerism acquired an outstanding political platform in the Global Forum that paralleled the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. An army of environmentalists, aid organizations and non-governmental development agencies met to discuss an environmental agenda much broader than that of the official conference. One of the important topics was Green consumerism: the development of Green awareness in day-to-day shopping and life-style decisions. Its fundamental premise is that the health of the planet rests more with the individual than with governments or multinational companies. Individuals lie at the sharp end of marketing channels that link consumers with producers and, as such, would represent a considerable commercial power over the whole channel were they only to act in consistent, environment-friendly ways. The forum and the international media coverage it received enabled Green consumerism to publicize its most central point which, put simply, is that if individual consumers commit themselves to consuming in environment-friendly ways, the international capitalist market for goods and services will be forced to provide them. In this way capitalism becomes Green capitalism.
