The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on all countries to adopt a series of measures to promote sustainability. The circular economy emerges as a new paradigm of production and consumption aligned with sustainable development represents a major challenge for all the agents involved. At the corporate level, it represents the inclusion of sustainable practices which put marketing in the spotlight of business strategy. In this context, education plays a decisive role in contributing to the sustainable development of societies, and this educational process can be promoted in different areas. The companies, for their potential to booster responsible demand from consumers, can be a powerful sustainability tool that contributes to reducing the gap between attitude and sustainable behavior. Based on a desk research methodology, this chapter pursues a twofold objective: to analyze whether there is a gap between consumers' stated attitude and sustainable behavior and to identify whether an appropriate marketing strategy can help overcome it.
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For decades, companies tried to find a differentiated position in markets saturated with competitors (what we might call “red oceans”), or, alternatively, they sought out new markets deserted of competitors, launching totally innovative products or services (what has come to be called “blue ocean strategies”). But those strategies have become obsolete for a simple reason: there are no more free oceans, neither red nor blue. The oceans are depleted. The oceans are empty, with no raw materials to exploit and saturated with pollution and garbage (Zhexembayeva, 2014).
Since the 1970s, the world's population has doubled and gross domestic product has quadrupled. These trends have required large amounts of natural resources that have driven economic development and improved human well-being, yes, but at great cost to the environment that has become a threat to maintaining the well-being achieved. (Global Resources Outlook, 2019)
Exploitation of non-renewable resources that, after being introduced into production processes and used, accumulate as waste; basic resources for industrial activity that are being depleted; exploitation of renewable resources above the replenishment rate leading to deforestation, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. As the population increases, the need for resources to sustain it grows, and if we add to this the climate change that is occurring as a result of global warming, it results in a growing tension that seriously threatens the health of the planet (Global Resources Outlook, 2019).
The Global Resources Outlook (GRO) warns that, if we continue with current consumption and production habits and levels, global material use would double compared to 2015 to reach 190,000 million tons by 2060. Per capita resource use would increase from 11.9 to 18.5 tonnes and this growth would cause stress on resource supply systems and unacceptable levels of environmental pressure that would exceed operating spaces for businesses and society.
“The second half of the 20th century is unique in the entire history of human existence on Earth. Many human activities reached take-off points sometime in the 20th century and accelerated sharply toward the end of the century. The last 50 years of the 20th century have undoubtedly seen the most rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world in all of human history. ” It is the “Great Acceleration”, led by developed countries and which poses two possible scenarios, “the great decoupling” or “the great collapse” (Steffen, et al., 2015).