Americans Willing to Pay More for Eco-Friendly Products
NEW YORK, July 28, 2008 -- Many Americans, including those who are enduring financial hardship, are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products, according to a survey conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
"Many American consumers, even in the face of economic uncertainty, express a willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly products,” said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale Project on Climate Change. "Toyota can’t make the Prius fast enough to meet consumer demand, to cite just one example, and many see ‘green’ products as the wave of the future.”
Half of the respondents to the survey said they would "definitely” or "probably” pay 15% more for eco-friendly clothes detergent (51%) or for an automobile (50%). Forty percent said they would spend 15% more on "green” computer printer paper and 39 percent would do the same for "green” wood furniture.
Americans who said their current financial situation is "fair” or "poor” were just as willing to spend 15% more on environmentally-friendly detergent or wood furniture as those Americans more confident of their current financial situation.
Moreover, a majority of Americans said it is important to them that a number of products they purchase be environmentally friendly -- automobiles (66% say it is "important” or "essential”), clothes detergent (62%), and computer printer paper (51%).
The survey also reveals that Americans want additional information about the environmental impacts of products to appear on labels. Solid majorities say that it is either "important” or "essential” to have eco-labels that describe the environmental impacts caused by product manufacture (73%), use (73%) and disposal (79%).
When asked to rate the trustworthiness of various eco-label sponsors, 75% of respondents said environmental groups are "very” or "somewhat” trustworthy, while 55% said government agencies and 51% said industry groups are trustworthy.
"These results suggest that manufacturers who offer high-quality and credibly labeled eco-friendly products will have opportunities to gain a competitive edge,” said Graeme Auld, a doctoral candidate at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
Findings in the GfK Roper/Yale Survey on Environmental Issues are derived from two national telephone surveys of Americans, ages 18 and over, conducted from March 28-30 (n=1,004) and April 4-6, 2008 (n=1,006) as part of GfK Roper’s weekly OMNITEL telephone omnibus service. The sample is drawn from random digit dialing (RDD) probability samples of all telephone households in the continental United States. Data were weighted to match national norms (derived from the Current Population Survey) on sex, age, region, and education. Topline findings are projectable at the 95% confidence level to the total adult continental US population within an average +/- 3 percentage point margin of error.
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About the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is a graduate and professional school that provides teaching, research and outreach in broad areas of environmental science, policy and management to some 200 candidates for master's degrees and 75 doctoral students. For more information, visit http://environment.yale.edu.