‘We learn about it in school and college but don’t really think about it’, is a mass Indian teenager’s take on environment in 2010. Though school didn’t teach it then, reduce, reuse and re-cycle is what their parents practiced at home. They may not have had sorted their garbage into dry and wet waste, but the raddi-wala weighed the monthly newspaper and magazines pile and gave fifteen rupees for the three kilos of raddi. Bottles of perfume and foreign liquor meant more. This was before the age of PET and soft drink bottles were returned to the store. Tyres re-treaded, tennis shoes were re-soled and unused sheets from notebooks were bound into ‘rough’ books. Used clothes and books were passed on as hand-me-downs. Clothes that had no takers were bartered away for thin gauge steel and aluminum vessels.
‘Green’ as shorthand environment and ‘sustainability’ has crept into our lexicon and consciousness in the past three years. In India a mass culture of thrift has given way to a shift to plenty and indulgence. The assertive Indian is in a mood to flaunt and strut. Parents don’t want to be asked to practice thrift, not when they like an eight year old who has just discovered the freedom of ‘pocket money’. ‘Use to last’ has been turned on its head to ‘Use until you enjoy’. Ten year olds, who are writing school essays and projects on green and environment, will be the green consumers of tomorrow. Green will become overt messaging in their brand choices. Brands in India need to adopt smart sustainable practices faster than the Indian consumer will. Great features and design, in-built with the green promise of a lower electricity bill cool, but a ‘green’ air conditioner’ is esoteric. Green for green’s sake or green for the future of our planet doesn’t sell. The payoff clearly still needs to be present-individual and not future- global. Brands ought to invest in practicing green, because the ten year old is going to choose environmentally conscious brands, truly with a vengeance.