Green Consumers-Myth or Reality?

July/August 2000

Whatever Happened to Green Consumers?
by Joel Makower

Here's a pop quiz: Two products are sitting next to each other in a store.
They're practically identical, but one is environmentally better -- let's
say it's recycled, recyclable, biodegradable, less toxic, or contains less
packaging. Both are priced about the same.

Which would you buy?

For those with even a scintilla of eco- consciousness, the answer is a no-
brainer: the "greener" one is preferable.

So, given that public-opinion surveys report that roughly three Americans
in four call themselves "environmentalists," and that marketing studies
tell us that roughly 7 in 10 consumers would gladly choose the greener
product over its less-green counterpart, why has green consumerism
remained a largely marginal aspect of shopping?

The chasm between green concern and green consumerism is, for me, one of
the more curious and frustrating aspects of the environmental movement.
For all the activism and consciousness-raising, for all the thinking
locally and acting globally, the overwhelming majority of consumers
haven't exactly demanded greener products. Only a relative handful of
consumers regularly go out of their way to make environmentally preferable
buying choices.

It seems the so-called green consumer movement was one of those well-
intended passing fancies, a testimony to Americans' never-ending quest for
simple, quick, and efficient solutions to complex problems.

What happened? Here are five reasons why the environment has failed to
become a mainstream market force:

1. There's no mandate. Though polls tell us that most consumers prefer
greener products, the polls are misleading: they fail to ask the right
questions. If you pose a question as a green-versus-ungreen choice, as I
did at the beginning of this column, the answer is obvious: everyone
prefers the greener choice. But if you probe deeper into consumer
attitudes, the real answer is that consumers will choose the greener
product -- IF it doesn't cost moreÖ comes from a brand they know and trust
. . . can be purchased at stores where they already shop . . . doesn't
require a significant change of habits to use . . . and has at least the
same level of quality, performance, and endurance as the less-green
alternative.

That's a high hurdle for any product. No wonder mainstream consumers
turned off to environmentally conscious shopping.

2. The public is dazed and confused. Shopping with Mother Earth in mind is
no mean feat, even for the most savvy of shoppers. After all,
understanding the environmental implications of something as simple as
paper versus plastic shopping bags requires digesting a fair amount of
science, some of which is inconclusive, contradictory, or simply arguable.
Both, after all, come from limited, declining resources, can be made from
recycled material, and can be recycled. Which is better? Even the
scientists don't agree. (Of course, the greenest bag is the reusable
organic cotton or hemp bag you use thousands of times before it must be
turned into compost, but that notion rarely gets considered at the end of
a checkout line.)

3. People lack perspective. Similarly, most people don't have a clue about
the relative environmental impacts of the things they do every day. For
example, a good many self-described green consumers don't seem to find
irony in jumping into their poorly tuned, gas-guzzling sport-utility
vehicles with a cold engine and underinflated tires to drive a couple
miles out of their way in bumper-to-bumper traffic in order to purchase
their favorite brand of recycled paper towels. Will buying the right
laundry detergent or ice cream make the world safe for gas-powered lawn
mowers, leaf blowers, and chain saws? You make the call.

The whole notion of green consumerism unwittingly contributes to this lack
of perspective. It implies that greener purchases can help "save the
earth." The dirty little secret of green consumerism is that we're not
likely to shop our way to environmental health.

4. Companies making greener products are afraid to speak up. With good
reason. Those early purveyors of "degradable trash bags" and "ozone-
friendly aerosols" got their wrists slapped, so marketers are
understandably gun-shy on making environmental claims, particularly those
that are scientifically debatable. And most companies aren't
environmentally pure, so to call attention to one's green goods risks
calling attention to one's ecological skeletons. Better to keep one's
corporate mouth shut, right?

5. Green benefits aren't always evident. As the Levi's example
demonstrates, many environmental initiatives companies take don't show up
on product labels. For example, Anheuser-Busch saves millions of pounds of
aluminum a year by shaving 1/8" off the diameter of its beer cans, though
they don't put eco-labels on cans of Busch and Bud. Nonetheless, they're
having a significant impact when you consider the energy and resource
inputs of aluminum, and the energy savings from trucking lighter-weight
cans. It's certainly a greater environmental contribution than that of
consumers pondering "paper versus plastic."

For now, it seems green consumerism is destined to be limited to the
roughly 10% to 12% of the marketplace that pollsters tell us are willing
to regularly seek out and buy green products, regardless of how much more
they cost or what lengths one must go to find them. Despite its
frustrations, green consumerism remains a powerful, largely untapped tool
for environmental change. The fact is, as I pointed out a decade ago,
every time we open our wallets, we cast a vote, for or against the
environment. And the marketplace isn't a democracy: It doesn't take 51%
voting in one direction to effect change. A relatively small number of
consumers can be a potent force. The model works. We just need to make it
work harder.

Joel Makower is a well-respected journalist and best-selling author, and a
leading voice on business and the environment. A writer and lecturer, he
is also editor of "The Green Business Letter," a monthly newsletter on
corporate environmental responsibility. Makower serves as president of
Green Business Network, producers of GreenBiz.com, a comprehensive web
portal on business and the environment.

This article is distributed courtesy the Center for a New American Dream's
Syndicated Column Service. For more information about the Center, click on
www.newdream.org, or call (877) 68-DREAM.