Green market: a comparative study in Romania

The green products market emerged as a response to the negative impact of production and consumption of conventional products on the environment. The need for greener production and consumption eventually lead to the need of the development of a green market, especially in Europe and US. Green products are made by using environmental-friendly processes and materials taking also into consideration energy efficiency. Ideally, a green product follows environmental-friendly path throughout its life, from raw materials to disposal. Some examples are the use of recycled paper for packaging, phosphate-free detergents, containers with less plastic content, and utilization of the equipment more efficient in terms of energy consumption. Naturally, the studies on identification and comparison of green products in relation to conventional ones gained more interest in the last decade, and are important as they offer environmental information to consumers as well as to producers on the benefits of green market. Furthermore, the relevant legislative initiatives as the application of the eco labeling in EU is increasing the environmental awareness, establishing high standards for producers and assisting the consumers to identify and use green products. The green products market in Romania is at the beginning as the eco labeling was introduced only in 2000 and in 2011 the European eco-label catalog included only five Romanian green products. To support the consumers on identifying green products and boost the green marketing in Romania, a LIFE+ project was funded by the European Commission, LIFE 08/INF/RO/000507 "Promoting Green Products" (2010-2013). The main objective of the project is to implement an integrated awareness raising campaign for consumers and producers in order to promote the consumption and production of green non-food products in Romania. One of the project activities aims to conduct market analysis in order to identify green products available in Romania and to analyze the several labels they carry in conformity to international and EU standards. The present paper presents the results of these studies, which were run in the period of 2010-2012. According to the methodology developed under the project, 20 product categories were monitored. The study was performed in two stages, at the beginning of the project in April-May 2010 and the middle of the project during April-May 2012.