Wednesday, March 31, 2010
According to GreenBiz.com, consumers and business executives view companies differently when it comes to green—with one big exception.
A survey of the “GreenBiz Intelligence Panel”, made up of US businesspeople, found that the greenest corporations make sustainability part of their core competency, and the top-ranked company was Walmart.
The global warning debate has created the usual set of conservative and liberal-thinking adversaries, but who knew that many weathermen, and weatherwomen, for the most part trained meteorologists, would side with the bah-humbuggers?
“A National Survey Of Television Meteorologists About Climate Change,” released by George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin, asked local TV weathercasters around the country if they thought global warming was actually occurring, and although a majority said yes, 25% of them answered no.
In what may have been the scariest finding, 21% didn’t know.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
According to the “2010 Consumer Survey Report” from the National Grocers Association (NGA) consumer interest in locally produced food products is running high—higher than organic.
In fact, 83% of customers say the presence of local food at their grocery stores is important to them, compared to 62% who say the same about organic products.
According to the “2010 Eco Pulse” study from the Shelton Group, Hispanic consumers in the US care more about environmental issues that their Caucasian counterparts.
In fact, one in four Hispanic consumers feel very strongly that it is their responsibility to make meaningful changes—including purchasing different products—to live a more sustainable lifestyle. In contrast, only 13% of Caucasians feel the same.
Monday, March 29, 2010
According to the “2010 Consumer Survey Report” from the National Grocers Association (NGA), one in five US shoppers would like to see more organic products on supermarket shelves.
This trend is more pronounced for shoppers who spend more on groceries. Roughly half, 49%, of shoppers who spend over $101 per week say carrying organic products is “very important”—compared to only 19% of shoppers whose shopping budget is between $81 and $101 per week.
Who is the Chief Sustainability Officer of American households?
According to the “Consumer Conservation Survey,” conducted by Ispos Public Affairs and sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, 67% of women say they are the green decision-maker at home—while 49% of men say they are.
Friday, March 26, 2010
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are over 9,000 Energy Star buildings in the US, and the city with the most of them is Los Angeles, followed by the nation’s capital, Washington DC.
It started harmlessly enough with eco-systems, and grew. By now consumers are familiar with a wide range of eco-friendly products, eco-travel and eco-tourism, even eco-homes and eco-cars. But have you ever been to an eco-bar?
On March 23rd, Forbes published—what may be the fist-ever—list of the 10 Great Eco-Bars in the US, reprinted from Mother Nature Network (MNN), writing: “Going to a green bar isn’t going to save the planet, but supporting bars that take the extra effort to lesson their carbon footprint is a great way to encourage businesses to go green any way they can.”
Thursday, March 25, 2010
This year, World Water Day, March 22nd, brought a flood of controversy.
“The sooner governments, industry and consumers start to see the links between energy, food and water security, and how policies in one area affect another, the more likely it is that water scarcity will get the profile it deserves and that we start acting decisively to assure the sustainability of humankind’s most precious resource, water,” wrote Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmanthe in an op-ed piece for the BBC.
Sounds good, but at the same time, Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA), the market-share leader in the US bottled water industry—with one-third of the market and selling water under 70 different brand names such as Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Perrier and Poland Spring—came under fire from environmental organizations for…bottling water.
According to Scarborough Research, 32% of US households have a green appliance.
Do green appliance users differ from the rest of the population? Not too much. They are 14% more likely to be married (index of 114), 12% more likely to be Gen X-ers (112 index) and 10% more likely to have two or more children (110 index).
