One Third of Consumers Will Buy Green Gadgets, and Other Interesting Stats
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 12.12.08
Photo via NNECAPA
The Consumer Electronics Association has conducted a survey that shows a rising consumer demand for green gadgets. A full one third of those surveyed said they plan to buy green versions of their gadgets in the next year.
Read on for more of the interesting results from the survey.
960 adults were surveyed on the web. That isn't a huge sample population, so take the details with a dash of salt. But the big picture is undeniable: consumers are becoming increasingly aware of and demanding about greener gadgets. Yaaaay!
Highlights from the survey, broken down by the Environmental Leader:
Familiarity with green terminology is high for established terms such as recyclable (86%) or energy efficiency (76%), but lower for emerging terms such as carbon footprint (33%).
Awareness of green labels and logos follows a similar pattern. Eighty-two percent of online adults recognize the Energy Star logo and 86% recognize the recycling arrows, but only 16% recognize the certified organic product logo.
Awareness of appliances with green attributes tops awareness of computers with similar attributes (50% vs. 17%).
Women tend to be more green than men: For example, 66% of women say they always shut off lights when not in use compared to 52% of males. Men and women recycle at about the same rates though. The teenage segment of the population exhibits fewer green behaviors. About 4 in 10 turn off the lights when not in use and about one-third recycle.
Fifty-five percent of consumers consider themselves to be environmentally conscious, while only 44% of teens fall into this category. 74% believe companies should do more to protect the environment, but only 53% think their personal actions have a significant impact on the environment.
About half of consumers express suspicion regarding the green claims made by some companies. Sixty-five percent of consumers think some companies are overstating how environmentally friendly their products are in order to sell more.
Consumers want an easy way to determine if and why a product is green. The majority (59%) want to know the specific attributes that make a CE product green, while 41% only want to know whether it is or isn’t.
And our favorite stats from the study:
Over half (55%) of consumers plan to engage in more environmentally friendly behaviors over the next 12 months.
About one-third of consumers expect to make some type of green CE purchase over the next 12 months.
All of this is great news, and we'll see how the industry is absorbing this mindset at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show. We'll be there to get the scoop on the greenest of the gadgets.
If someone is going to buy an electronic, it might as well be a green one.
Via Consumer Electronics Press Release
More on the Greener Side of Consumers:
Better Green Labels Needed to Clear Up Consumer Confusion
Survey Says Notebook Users Want Green, Long-Lasting Batteries
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It is the growing consciousness of the people towards their enviornment and also a green signal for companies to invest in technologies which are eco friendly. this survey is clearly a prelude to the trneds in the coming year.
i don't mean to be a downer, but depending on the survey style used, a lot of these answers are likely skewed towards the green end of the scale. Because it is such a popular moral issue, many people will a)lie or b) say they plan to be green and believe it, but their minds are full of hyperbole of what they have actually accomplished. It is the same effect that the Obama campaign was worried about when polling to find out if race would affect voting behaviour. Obama is a political phenom, but there were concerns that the numbers would be inflated because he was the trendy or popular choice in the minds of many Americans. Fortunately, that turned out not to be a factor, let's hope these people really follow through on their green promises.