The Green Transition Scoreboard tots up $2 trillion in consumer green demand.
By Maria Olga Pinochet
In 2009, The Green Revolution, a survey by Grail Research, found that 85% of US consumers buy green products. Growing consumer demand for greener products and company practices is influencing business plans worldwide. The UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study 2010 confirms sustainability is considered a key driver for growth. Increased demand spans traditional consumer segments, including business-to-business transactions and government spending.
The private sector has long been leading this transition from a fossil-fueled industrial economy to a cleaner, greener economy, as tracked by the Green Transition Scoreboard® (GTS), a time-based, global research of non-government investments and commitments for green markets. The latest update of the GTS totals $2 trillion from 2007 to the end of 2010.
Large corporations such as IBM and GE have green marketing initiatives, IBM’s Smarter City and GE’s ecomagination, informing end-users about how renewable energy sources help reduce individual energy costs and usage. Small local and regional cleantech companies, from solar startups to biofuels, have had minimal budgets to market their story of benefits to people and better products, making it a challenge for them to leverage consumer demand.
Even so, given a choice, consumers pick the greener option observes David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy and owner of Green Mountain Energy, a clean energy retail electricity provider that has seen a 33% growth rate across 14 states. As individual users understand the impact of their energy use on the environment, they choose alternatives to fossil fuels.
Niche markets are benefiting from consumer demand for greener quality. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) latest report “Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication” details growing interest by private investors in response to consumer demand for green agriculture and tourism: in 2008, global sales of fair-trade products exceeded US$3.5 billion, and surveys indicate more than a third of travelers would participate in sustainable eco-tourism that reduces waste and enhances biodiversity and ecosystems.
With the sustained economic downturn, The Ernst & Young Business Risk Report 2010 reveals as a pressing long-term issue, environmental concerns have slipped to eighth place from fourth last year. However, after the March 11th Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency, NewEnergyNews reported 76% of Americans polled voice more support for using safer renewable energy resources and 74% would support shifting federal loan-guarantees “away from nuclear reactors” in favor of wind and solar power.
Regardless of current events’ influence, the long-term importance of moving toward a green economy is substantiated. The 2010 Deloitte Study, surveying 48 large US-headquartered corporations, verifies sustainability is more than just a public relations campaign. Sustainability is considered a strategy in alignment with business priorities, a factor that is considered in sourcing, a standard in the evaluation of outside collaborations and a driver for product innovation.
Reports like the Deloitte Study support the Green Transition Scoreboard® research projections that put global investors and countries on track to reach the goal of $10 trillion in investments by 2020, a total viewed as the tipping point toward a green economy. Keep posted on all the developments that influence the Green Transition by visiting Ethical Markets Media and the Green Transition Scoreboard®.
About Maria Olga Pinochet
Maria Olga Pinochet, Senior Advisor for Global Strategy of Ethical Markets Media, is President and Founder at Kore Access, Incorporated, a marketing consulting and communications firm dedicated to sustainability leadership. Maria currently serves on the executive council for the Northeast Florida Green Chamber and is advisor to several local civic groups and nonprofit organizations. She is a regular contributor to several popular marketing blogs. Maria has worked for Ethical Markets Media as a Senior Advisor Global Strategy since 2010, and helps to market the Green Transition Scoreboard® with Hazel Henderson.
About the Green Transition 
“Consumer Demand: Driving the Green Transition” is the final post in this five-part series by contributing members of the Green Transition Scoreboard® research team. For part one in the series, read Hazel Henderson’s “Good News on the Green Transition;” part two by Rosalinda Sanquiche, “Efficiency: Bedrock of the Green Transition;” part three by Timothy Jack Nash, “Corporate R&D: Global Investments in Green Innovation;” and part four “Towards a Healthy Renewable Energy Future” by Leslie Danziger. For more information, please view the associated press release.
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