A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, notes that Internet-based companies have the opportunity to help the environment if they would just tell consumers about their environmentally friendly choices.
Researchers found that consumers are willing to make climate-friendly choices when the options are available to them. Carbon footprints of products and services are often known to companies, but are not made known to consumers.
In experiment after experiment, consumers chose the green products when the information on the products was available to them.
I’m posting this study here because the same applies to companies providing information to consumers about how toxic or nontoxic their products are.
I just am having an experience this week with a website that is selling a product that appears to be nontoxic but there are no ingredients. An email asking directly for the ingredients produced a reply, but no mention of ingredients.
It shouldn’t be that hard to get information about products. This study shows that consumers are interested in having information so they can make informed choices.
THE WASHINGTON POST: People would buy green products – if only e-commerce showed them how
Good to know!
On Facebook at least, toxic products get a lot more shares and likes than posts about the hazards of toxic ingredients.
As always, consumers also want to know that products are practical, and they work. And are not more expensive etc. Not all green websites have promoted that side of things.
I agree. Many years ago when I was doing market research on green products we found that consumers wanted green and would pay more for green products but ONLY IF THE PRODUCTS WORKED AS WELL AS OR BETTER THAN TOXIC PRODUCTS. Performance has to be part of the equation.