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Consumers say they want to buy ecologically friendly products and to reduce their impact on the environment. But when they get to the cash register, their Earth-minded sentiments die on the vine. Although individual quirks underlie some of this hypocrisy, businesses can do a lot more to help would-be green consumers turn their talk into walk.
At long last, the impulse to go green is spreading faster than a morning glory. Organizations of all types are launching green campaigns-from the city of London's Congestion Charge on automobiles, to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s push to sell organic foods, to the University of Texas's construction of L E E D green buildings. Consumers too are getting behind the idea of being greener. In almost every opinion poll, consumers say that they are very concerned about climate change. They worry about rising seas, declining air quality, shrinking animal habitats, lengthening droughts, and newly brewing diseases. And they connect the dots back to their own purchases, finds a 2007 McKinsey & Company global survey of 7,751 consumers in eight major economies.1 Our results show that a full 87 percent of these consumers are concerned about the environmental and social impacts of the products they buy.
But when it comes to actually buyinggreen goods, words and deeds often part ways. Only 33 percent of consumers in our survey say they are ready to buy green products or have already done so. And, according to a 2007 Chain Store Age survey of 822 U.S. consumers, only 25 percent say they have bought a green product other than organic food or energy-efficient lighting. By and large, consumers tend to ignore other Earth-friendly products such as carpets made from recycled fiber and energy-saving computers.
Even the green goods that have caught on have tiny market shares. Organic foods-which consumers buy more for their own health than for the environment's-accounted for less than 3 percent of all food sales in 2006, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. In 2006, green laundry detergents and household cleaners made up less than 2 percent of sales in their categories. And despite their trendiness, hybrid cars made up little more than 2 percent of the U.S. auto market in 2007, according to a report by J.D. Power and...