ABSTRACT
The challenge of moving towards more sustainable economies, and the provision of longer lasting solutions to our needs within them, is considerable. It will require many innovations in our technologies, our infrastructure and amongst the key actors within our systems of consumption and production. Although there will be many technical and practical barriers to overcome, perhaps the most difficult change that will be required is to change our minds, our patterns of thinking, about the way in which we produce and consume. Much of the 'software' that drives our systems of consumption and production resides in the management discipline of marketing. Marketing has been under pressure to change, to become more environmentally orientated, materially efficient and sustainable, for most of the last 20 years. In general, however, the conventional marketing paradigm has proven remarkably resilient. Instead of changing to create pathways to sustainability, it has largely endured and often acted as a barrier to change. This chapter explores how the quest to develop technologies and products that are more durable will depend on changing how we think both about marketing and within marketing, creating a new sustainable marketing paradigm.
