This thesis examines the extent to which Green Consumerism has the capacity to confer competitive advantage to the producers and distributors of certain fast moving consumer goods in the Irish retail market. It begins with a review of the literature linking mass consumerism to the major threats which currently beset the environment both on a national and global scale e.g. Ozone depletion and water pollution. The research section focuses on two major consumer markets, laundry detergents and paper tissues - both of which have been considerably influenced, during the period under review (1992-1996), by consumer concern about the environment. Senior management figures in the leading companies describe both the level and source of this consumer pressure and provide extensive details of the new initiatives and policies they have introduced as a consequence of it. A central part of this section is an attempt to measure the success of these so-called green marketing initiatives. One of the biggest consumer marketing campaigns ever undertaken in Ireland was conducted in this area by Lever and the objective and outcome of this is evaluated. The major food retailers in Ireland describe how, in customer panels, a very high level of concern is traditionally expressed about the negative impact of certain consumer goods on the environment. All agree, however, that there is a distinct and wide gap between this level of expressed concern of their customers and their actual buying behaviour. The ‘green brands’ which have been launched to appeal to this market segment as less damaging to the environment appear to have failed to win significant market share. Almost all have had to be withdrawn from the supermarket shelves because their rate of sale was considered to be unacceptably low compared with existing standard lines in their category. Nonetheless, the manufacturers and retailers involved in this study still believe this is an issue which will continue to grow in importance over the coming three years but, they expect, the impetus will no longer be coming from the marketplace but will instead come from Europe and new legislation on pollution and packaging waste.