Greening consumption at the retail outlet: the case of the Thai appliance industry

Abstract

Over the decades, the Thai appliance industry has developed into a strong and export-oriented industry with rigorous strategies to improve the environmental performance of products and production. Leading producers have recently begun to develop greening strategies targeting the consumption behavior of consumers, materialized through the provision of green appliances, environmental information, and sustainable images and storylines. However, communication regarding green provision in the retail setting has been found to be passive and to not correspond with the orientation of Thai consumers. Consequently, it has been found to be difficult to empower and activate citizen-consumers to buy more sustainable appliances. For this situation to change, green communication strategies of providers must become more proactive by adopting environmental labels to discern green appliances from general appliances and by improving the environmental content of communications in a way that (re)establishes stagnant or even absent consumer trust in green providers.

Keywords:

• sustainable consumption
• CSR strategy
• consumer-oriented strategy
• Thai consumer
• Thai appliance industry
• appliance retail outlet

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the article. Special thanks go to Astrid Hendriksen and Jorrit Nijhuis for their assistance in designing focus groups. Gratitude is extended to Patranda Sangmahamad, Suangrawee Chanhom, Chalasai Rajakit, Patiporn Kitlert Douthat, Natakan Thongpradup, and Piyapoj Phoolsilp for their kind supports for the fieldwork.

Notes

^1. We defined direct and indirect environmental impacts of products from the consumer perspective, meaning that the direct impact refers to impacts caused by consumers in using the product and that the indirect impact refers to impacts caused by others in manufacturing the product.

^2. In addition to Energy Label No. 5, environmental labels that have criteria for electrical appliances are Green Label (for many appliances including air conditioner and refrigerator), Carbon Footprint (for air conditioner and copy machine), and Carbon Reduction Label (criteria focus on production processes of manufacturing companies).

^3. Specific criteria of Green Label for air conditioners and refrigerators include considerations about ozone depleting substance, hazardous substances, identification signs on plastic parts, noise level during the use of product, information given in user handbook, packaging, painted colors (air conditioners only), use of recyclable plastic (air conditioners only), and energy efficiency (refrigerators only) (Office of the Green Label Secretariat 2010, 2011).