"The majority of consumers really don't care all that much about the environment."

[marmar]

from Joel Makower's Sustainable Business. Clean Technology. Green Marketplace. blog:


Green Consumers and the Mushiness Index

A new market research study of Americans' green passions and buying habits is out this week, from the venerable Yankelovich. I've just seen a presentation on the findings, and it's at once fascinating and maddening. That is, fascinating if you want a glimpse into Americans' green turn-ons and turn-offs. Maddening if you are trying to figure out how to sell into this unruly market space.

First, the bottom line. "Given consumer attitudes today, green is best characterized as a niche opportunity in the consumer marketplace," says Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich. "It is a strong niche opportunity, but it is not a mainstream interest that is passionately held or strongly felt by the majority of consumers."

Or, perhaps more to the point: "The majority of consumers really don't care all that much about the environment. Green simply doesn't has not captured the public imagination."

Ouch.

After endless months of magazine covers, TV specials, Al Gore, Live Earth, and a gazillion other media stories and events, how can this be? After all the warnings about flooded coastlines, drowning polar bears, more Katrinas, and the increased threat of invasion of everything from infectious insects to rogue superweeds, why aren't people concerned? Has all this fallen on deaf ears?

Says Smith: "The fact is, the amount of media interest given to the environment far exceeds the amount of consumer interest. It's not that consumers aren't aware of the environment, but there's something missing in the way consumers are processing information given to them about the environment today."

Consider: 82% of Americans have neither read nor seen Al Gore's book or movie.

That will likely be news to the many environmental activists and professionals I hear from who proclaim that we've reached a "tipping point" or "inflection point" on the environment -- the notion that public sentiment is growing, and will soon lead companies and products to transform their ways of doing business. (This may be the real green business bubble I keep hearing about.) .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2007/07/green-consumers.html

[MasonJar]

1. Obviously we need to push harder for "green" on a daily basis. I told

Kroger and Target to get paper towels and toliet paper made of recycled paper or kiss my business good-bye.

[marmar]

2. Good for you.....

I noticed that Target carries the green paper plates, but not the towels. But I never said anything about it. :hide:

[InvisibleTouch]

3. Most people won't be aware...

...until it impacts them personally. When the water runs out, for instance, or conversely when the ocean is knocking on their front door. And by then it will be too late.

[Double T]

4. Do you see fewer SUVs on the roads?

Enough said.

[rfranklin]

5. Air conditioners going 24/7 from April through October...

Homes loaded with blaring radios, TVs, multiple refrigerators, and other electronic junk.

[ramapo]

7. Cars/trucks and lunch in the park

I like to get out of the office for a walk whenever possible. I am always flabbergasted by the number of people who drive to the park and sit with the windows up, engine idling, to keep cool or warm depending upon the season.

I realize this is a small, insignificant waste of gas and unnecessary increase in emissions but it is so blatantly wasteful that it makes me crazy. The weather doesn't even have to be particularly hot or cold.

[The2ndWheel]

6. Well, we're detaching ourselves from it more and more

Or at least we want to. It's easier to get in a car. We don't think we should die. We create all types of poisons to get rid of other life(pests). We've made it so that pigs, cows, chickens, etc, don't have lives of their own(we breed them to fit our needs, not their own), and certainly can't run or fight back.

Of course we hate the environment. By itself, it won't let us live forever. The only way to accomplish that is to control every atom or string in it.

[NMDemDist2]

8. yeah, that's why when I went into town today my trunk was full of recycling

and when I unpacked my reusable canvas grocery bags when I got back home, they were full of organic fruit and post consumer recycled paper goods

I may be in the minority but our numbers are growing