It seems an unlikely place to start a consumer revolution but Bissingen, a small town outside the southern German city of Stuttgart, has just opened Europe's biggest green shopping centre and is spear-heading a campaign to transform environmental virtue into business success.
Housed in a converted corn mill, the Rommelsmuehle Centre boasts 22 retail units offering Germany's ever-increasing number of environmentally conscious consumers everything from muesli to meditative music.
The most striking feature of the Rommelsmuehle Centre is how similar it is to any other shopping centre, complete with automatic doors, piped music and humming, electronic cash registers. Even the customers look unremarkable and the centre is entirely devoid of the mournful "brown rice and sandals" atmosphere of many wholefood shops.
According to Hans Kahlau, marketing director of Archy Nova GmbH, the property company behind the project, the Rommelsmuehle Centre is determined to remain part of the mainstream and to avoid being stigmatised as part of the alternative scene.
"Customer-friendly service is the top priority and ecology comes after that - otherwise we could close down after six months," he said.
Most of the well-heeled shoppers strolling along the Rommelsmuehle aisles last week were part of the so-called 1968 generation, the 50-somethings whose youth was shaped by the student protests 30 years ago. This is the generation that dominates Germany's new government of Social Democrats and Greens: highly educated, enlightened and with a lot of money to spend.
"It's possible to consume responsibly without losing pleasure in life," said Mr Kahlau.
The furniture and household goods for sale in the Gruene Erde (Green Earth) shop certainly prove that ecologically sound products can also be beautiful; and the biologically produced wine sold by Delinat next door would delight the most discerning nose.
A green DIY shop sells building products made from pure raw materials and untreated with chemicals, as well as insulating materials to save energy. Another shop specialises in jewellery for people with allergies and a toy shop offers such treats as a model kit for a solar-powered paddle steamer - complete with a tiny solar energy panel.
The Wings Pur beauty parlour offers hairstyling with natural products, meditative massage and "aroma drinks" as well as facial treatments for men and women.
Nothing on sale at the Rommelsmuehle Centre is cheap and products in its giant wholefood store are sometimes three times as expensive as their supermarket equivalents. But the 1968 generation appears to be willing to pay the price of virtue, especially if it can enjoy a taste of luxury without damaging the planet.
Archy Nova was founded 14 years ago by two architecture students who wanted to devise ecologically sound homes and businesses. The company now employs 40 people and is financially strong enough to have put up one-third of the DM38 million (£15.2 million) needed to buy and renovate the old corn mill. The rest of the money was collected from private investors by the Oekobank, a Frankfurt bank that specialises in funding environmentally-sound projects.
The Rommelsmuehle Centre is not only a model of green marketing; it is also careful to practise what it preaches.
Three water mills harness the flow of the river Enz to produce five times as much energy as the centre needs. The rest is fed into the local electricity grid.
Even the air conditioning system is designed to cut energy costs by capitalising on the cool air circulating near the river.
The centre includes a small brewery which supplies the Rommelsmuehle restaurant with beer and honey-sweetened soft drinks. The restaurant serves mostly local produce, including meat from animals reared in compassionate conditions.
Some 100 "eco-orientated and very open" people live in the complex, drawing on communal resources such as a sauna and children's play rooms. Many of the residents work in the Rommelsmuehle Centre and want to live a thoroughly environmentally-sound lifestyle.
The remoteness of Bissingen means that the centre has had to provide 200 car-parking places nearby, but Archy Nova encourages customers to use public transport, including an electric bus link from the local railway station. It also offers a highly efficient car-sharing system, using locally produced Mercedes cars.
The presence of the Greens in government has highlighted that green issues are now part of the political mainstream in Germany. The new government is committed to promoting environmentally sound energy strategies and to rewarding ecologically virtuous firms.
Archy Nova is hoping to open more green shopping centres in other German cities if the Rommelsmuehle Centre is a success. As a new, environmentally conscious mood grips the German consumer, other shrewd investors are likely to follow suit.
