Press Release

Americans’ Approach End Of Year With Increasing Green Confidence

Monthly Green Confidence Index bounces back from previous month as consumers show more interest in buying green products.

OAKLAND, Calif., December 18, 2009 - U.S. consumers are approaching the end of the year with cautious optimism, according to the latest data from the monthly Green Confidence Index (www.greenconfidenceindex.com).

The Index, which stood at 100 in July, rose to 103.2 in November, a positive change of 3.2 percent since its inception and a solid rebound from October. The Index is based on a monthly online survey of approximately 2,500 Americans aged 18 and over. It measures Americans’ attitudes towards and confidence in how leaders and institutions are perceived to be addressing environmental issues, the adequacy of information available to them to make informed decisions, and their past and future purchases of green products.

Of the Index’s three components, consumer purchasing showed more volatility than indicators tracking information and responsibility. The Purchasing Index — which includes both past and anticipated future expenditures on green products — rose more than 5% in a single month.

According to Chief Research Officer Amy Hebard of Earthsense, whose company creates the Index: "The growth in purchasing is a tiptoe in the right direction,” though she notes that its increase is largely due to past purchases — those made in the past six months — as opposed to planned purchases. “Pent-up demand remains stable, with more consumers intending to buy green products in the future than do so now across consumable products. That pent-up demand is especially evident among ‘big ticket’ items, where green purchasing is more dependent on price parity with conventional products – a situation likely to change as credit markets loosen and consumers can take a longer view of expenditures.”

The November Index also measured Americans’ attitudes toward regulation of business, specifically those that could raise prices while reducing harmful emissions. By a 2-to-1 margin, consumers favored regulations over prices. “Those who didn’t voiced their opposition much more to government interference with business than with the specific issues of emissions reduction or climate change,” notes John John Davies, Vice President of GreenBiz Intelligence, a unit of Greener World Media.

Americans’ attitudes toward business seems to vary based on the size of the company in question. November’s Green Confidence Index found that consumers believe more strongly that midsized companies (those with between 50 and 1,000 employees) aren’t doing enough to address their environmental responsibility, at least compared with small companies and large ones. As Davies notes: “This could pose significant reputational risks to midsize firms in terms of attracting and retaining employees, especially as the economy and the job market improve.