55% of consumers are willing to pay a 10% additional premium for electronic products manufactured in a more environmentally conscious way, according to a new report out today from UK research firm Canalys.
The study, which questionned 2,000 people throughout the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy found that attitudes varied very little across gender, income groups or educational standards. This has been partially attributed to the increased media coverage of environmental issues in recent years. Disappointingly the UK came bottom of the five countries surveyed, being least likely to pay a premium for green products. Energy saving measures were most likely to involve behavioural decisions (i.e. turning off machines on standby) rather than having an influence on people at the purchasing decision stage.
With the launch of the governments Act on CO2 carbon calculator today , it is clear that environmental issues are rising up the policial agenda and this research indicates that consumers are certainly have a greener outlook. It would have been good if the study had looked at the premiums people would be willing to pay for greener vehicles, but no doubt similar findings would apply. Motoring is however very different to general electronics use as almost the opposite applies – people are much more likely to find it easier to buy greener technology than change their travelling behaviour. An anacdotal view point, but one I’m sure could certainly be qualified by future research.
This is certainly another interesting study and as I battle on with trying to find out my annual household CO2 rating from the very busy new carbon tool at http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk, it will be interesting to see what behavioural options are put forward…
(Source: http://www.enn.ie/article/47882.html)
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