Do we really need green?
Mar 27, 2009
People are not willing to pay more for green products and services; people are not willing to sacrifice quality for green products and services; people are not willing to give up convenience for green products and services.
Is that really unreasonable? Why should consumers be expected to make any of these concessions when it comes to being green? They shouldn’t. It’s the responsibility of companies to develop innovative products that don’t require us to compromise anything to be green. It’s their job to create a NEED for green, not a WANT like it is in today’s world.
The green movement will only truly become a mass movement when the choice to be green becomes a no-brainer because all other deciding factors are equal. Only then will consumers put their money where there mouth is and really “go green.”
Jordan,
I think WOW says it all. Because of Allie, Adriane and you, greening our world will be come a reality sooner rather than later.
Deby
Hello JZ,
While not a factual, it is an interesting assertion that does put pressure on manufacturers to develop products that perform at least as well, AND have price parity or better than non-green brands. Based on many polls now and our own companies personal experience in selling Green Products, people ARE pay more for Green options (ie. Toyota Prius is the most obvious).
Manufacturers don’t NEED to create demand for Green. The need is already present and alive with the public at large. Manufactures do need to respond quickly to public demand for Green, for Quality and Price; for solutions that work.
As a manufacturer, this is not an easy task. The incumbents such as P&G, GE etc. have a very long history of selling products that do harm. In fact, to be completely honest, NO mass marketed product can be made by anyone that does no harm to the environment. The target right now is less and less harm. In any case, we have been convinced of Whiter Whites at the cost of potential future health problems, bigger engines, cooler buildings and All-You-Can-Eat at the cost of increased CO2.
Do we NEED Green? No!
Are there consequences to our air, food, and water supply and potentially coastline real estate if we do not move towards a sustainable approach. Absolutely.
If we bring in current related consequences such as health care cost, insurance costs and other slightly askew expenses associated with how we have been living (moderately unconcerned for sustainability) then it becomes obvious that we are paying anyway. A benchmark for this might be cancer where currently one in four men will get cancer in their lifetime in the USA. That is very, VERY expensive and directly related to carcinogens that show up in quantities unfit for human use within most non-green items.
While I can’t say consumers should be ‘expected’ to make concessions, if what you are saying is true when you ‘no concessions’ then I assert we have gotten ourselves a bit too removed from the invisible impact on ourself of being unrelated to the consequences of our choices over time. Let me be a bit extreme for a moment. Whiter-Whites or early death by cancer: Choose.
Personally, if there is a small probably of this statement being true based on EPA guidelines for phosphates in detergents, I will be making a small concession towards slightly less than bright white. How about you?
Meanwhile, my company is going in a green direction voluntarily and this costs a significant amount of time, thinking and work. We started with carbon credits, are now on the EPAs Green Power Partner list and have become Georgia’s only consumer products company to be compensating for our carbon footprint at 100%. We have a Green SHipping Option for our online consumers and over 60% of them add an extra dollar to their order. We put each and every dollar directly towards planting a tree and have planted thousands of trees in the last two years. We also took the initiative to scan 800 of our products for heavy metals and now have 100% of our products RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substances) screened.
Our Conserve(tm) Brand of products now has Sugar Cane Fiber (Bagasse) food-ware. This was an annual waste item that was rotting or getting burned and is now replacing paper or plastic plates which took between 10-1,000,000 years to create. This moved non-renewable resources to a renewable one where, as long as human being want sugar, there will always be plenty…and that’s sweet!
Thank you for starting this conversation!
Best regards,
David
Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
I have been looking looking around for this kind of information. Will you post some more in future? I’ll be grateful if you will.
Gary: Glad you liked the posting. As you can tell, green is a topic of great interest and importance to me. I’m sure we will be posting more entries on this and other related topics in the future. Please make sure to check back on a regular basis…and make sure to subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already.
I do think that people will make voluntary sacrifices for the sake of being green. I have seen people volunteering to clean the sides of roads. People buy more efficient flourescent light fixtures even though they cost 6 times more than incandescent. I have lived in areas where recycling cans, bottles, plastic etc was completely voluntary, and many people chose to recycle; even driving to recycling centers to drop off the material when curb side pickup is not available. Many people will do things for very little reward if they feel they are doing the “right thing”, kind of similar to going to church and tithing. Some kind of perceived long term benefit but no immediate payoff.
It’s a masterpiece. I have never thought people can have such ideas and thoughts. You are great.
Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.
I just keep on posting about things that are meaningful to me and a position and point of view that can be strong!