ENVIRONMENT | Protecting our natural resources
12 March 2008
Consumers Demand Green
By Traci Purdum
Many consumers are recognizing that their consumption affects the environment, and they are pressuring corporations to reduce the negative effects of their operations.
Traci Purdum is the editor-in-chief of HVACR Business, a monthly business-management magazine geared toward heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration contractors.
As an American business journalist, I am required by my job to be aware of consumer trends. No matter what industry I am writing for, it is the end customer that makes or breaks the free market.
Unfortunately, some consumers are fickle. The must-have widget of today will turn into tomorrow’s trash — either through the natural course of fading fads or the oftentimes maddening phenomenon of instant obsolescence.
But, increasingly, consumers seem to be recognizing what their consumption does to the environment. These consumers are smart, and they want the companies with which they do business to be smart as well. That means not only creating products that help consumers organize their lives, achieve personal and business success, look their best, feel their best, and make them the envy of the neighborhood, but also that help them lower their carbon footprint.
This year marks the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, which was the brainchild of a U.S. senator who aimed to bring environmental concerns to mainstream America.
As reported on the Earth Day Network’s Web site, at the time of the first Earth Day “Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V-8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.”
While the message was slow to make an impact back in the 1970s, in today’s world it is difficult not to be aware of — or at least curious about — the impact we are having on our limited resources. And it is that concern that has companies catering to consumers’ desires to be less offensive to the environment.
Building Green
Indeed, “green” is the new buzzword making its way into the mainstream via commercials, television shows, company dossiers, and conferences.
To be sure, at the end of 2007 I attended the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo held in Chicago. The event attracted more than 20,000 environmentally conscious builders, architects, students, and media — all there to witness the sea change of the building industry.
To kick off the conference, former President Bill Clinton announced to a global audience several new partnerships to improve the energy efficiency of hundreds of millions of square meters of public and private real estate throughout the United States.
The environmental initiative has made its way to an industry infamous for depleting forests and gobbling up green spaces. Why? Because consumers demand it.
Manufacturing Green
And what consumers want, consumers get. Indeed, manufacturers are designing for the environment in order to capture consumers’ dollars.
General Electric Company, for example, has undertaken an ecomagination campaign to highlight the company’s focus on a cleaner environment. And Nike Inc. has launched the Nike Environmental Action Team to focus on recycling, education, and innovative programs such as Reuse-A-Shoe, which recycles shoes and turns them into new products. These companies understand the power of green and what it means for their bottom lines. Being last to market with concern for resources is irresponsible at best.
But it isn’t merely being environmentally friendly that matters. Companies know that the power of marketing green products is worth more to the bottom line than lowering their carbon footprints.
Touting a “greener Apple,” Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer, recently penned a letter to customers noting that his company “has been criticized by some environmental organizations for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, and for not aggressively or properly recycling its old products. Upon investigating Apple’s current practices and progress toward these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases, Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas. Whatever other improvements we need to make, it is certainly clear that we have failed to communicate the things that we are doing well.”
Some pundits in the electronics industry note that the most Earth-friendly thing a company can do is increase the length of time between new hardware purchases. In the future, consumers are going to enjoy the fruits of a battle among electronics makers who are vying for their dollars via upgrades rather than whole new — and expensive — purchases.
Traveling Green
Interestingly, consumers’ concerns aren’t just focused on products. How they travel and where they stay for business and holidays also may be determined by environmental impact.
Green travel and green hotel sites are popping up all over the world and are attracting more than tree-hugging globetrotters. Even casual travelers have been introduced to green initiatives in subtle ways. From the hotel room placards that urge guests to reuse bath towels and resist having housekeeping change bedsheets daily in order to conserve water, to paperless checkouts, the travel and tourism industry is cashing in on being environmentally sound. Consumers are able to feel good about their stay at a green hotel, and hotels are able to slow down their water and electric meters and enjoy smaller utility bills.
But what about air travel? Aircraft pollution in the form of ozone-depleting nitrogen and carbon dioxide has many consumers thinking twice about their mode of transportation. How do they tread lightly upon the Earth and still enjoy the convenience of airplanes?
A recent trend is carbon-offset programs. These programs are aimed at guilt-laden consumers wanting to erase their environmental sins.
For example, Continental Airlines recently launched a carbon-offsetting program, developed in partnership with nonprofit Sustainable Travel International. The voluntary program allows customers worldwide to view the carbon footprint of their booked itinerary, which Sustainable Travel International calculates from the fuel consumption of Continental’s aircraft. Travelers then can make a contribution to Sustainable Travel International via one of four project portfolios:
- Gold Standard emission reduction projects managed by MyClimate, which are renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects validated, registered, and verified following Clean Development Mechanism principles under the Kyoto Protocol
- International reforestation projects that preserve and create critical forests and that are designed using the standards set forth by the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Alliance
- U.S. Green-e certified renewable energy projects, such as wind farms
- Or a combination of these projects.
The Green Bottom Line
What started as our ancestors’ dreams to fly like birds, erect buildings that touch the sky, and pave trails across the globe grew into massive industries that in their infancy disregarded their effect on the environment — all in the name of progress. Now, like the phoenix rising from the ashes of its past lifecycle, industry is taking its cue from the environment and is attempting a rebirth — all in the name of consumer demand.
The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
