Greening of industries for sustainable growth

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to aim in general to understand the perception of industries in India – a fast growing economy, towards green philosophy and to investigate further what initiatives those industries have taken for becoming green. Design/methodology/approach – The study is exploratory in nature and attempts to understand the behaviour of three types of industries, namely, durable, non‐durable and services towards green philosophy. Findings – Results of the study reflect that industries in India, in general have a positive view for practicing green philosophy. They feel becoming green will help them in gaining the competitive advantage and will support them in sustainable growth. Also the industries that have a positive attitude towards greening have taken some measures and initiatives in this direction to establish a sustainable competitive advantage for succeeding in today's highly challenging and dynamic global markets. Research limitations/implications – The present exploratory study provides a starting‐point for further research. Researchers can further explore whether industries using green philosophy were able to register a competitive advantage and could gain added market share and profits by becoming green. They can investigate the reason behind this green attitude, whether industries are using green practices for cutting costs in turn to increase their profits or whether they have a genuine concern for environmental protection and society's welfare and therefore adopting green practices in their industry. Originality/value – Most of such studies in the field of green marketing and social economics are done in developed countries and remain conspicuously missing in the context of fast developing Asian countries. This research is a step to filling this gap and providing a platform for further research in this area.