July 31st, 2008
As Consumers, We Are More Conflicted Than Conscientious
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In two earlier posts, I had written about the consumption dichotomy in the National Geographic/ GlobeScan Greendex Survey –
The consumers in developed countries are not concerned about the environment, and the consumers in developing countries won’t back up their concern with proactive consumer behavior.
So, I propose, somewhat sadly, that the “can consume, will consume” maxim will continue to hold for most people in most countries, and the solution to our environmental woes will lie in consuming intelligently, and not in consuming less. Which makes me wonder why I ever thought that the trends towards less consumption will ever move from the fringes to the mainstream.
A recent AdWeek article titled ‘Deflating a Myth: Consumers Aren’t as Devoted to the Planet as You Wish They Were’ confirms my fears –
Surveys do consistently show people voicing strong support for environmental protection… But this is the sort of subject about which it’s awfully easy for people to pay lip service when a pollster asks whether they’d like to save the planet from despoliation… There is a lot of ‘aspirational’ commitment, as opposed to real commitment, by consumers… When it asks about specifics of green behavior, polling tends to confirm that mainstream consumers have learned to talk the talk but are still in the baby-steps phase of walking the walk.
