It’s been another action-packed day at FORTUNE’s Brainstorm Green conference on business and the environment. Lively conversation about the future of coal (it’s not going away), sustainable seafood (about which more another day), geoengineering and marketing to the green consumer.
The “green consumer” panel featured SC Johnson’s CEO H. Fisk Johnson, Steve Wenc of UL Environment and marketing guru Suzanne Shelton. It was moderated by my friend and colleague Joel Makower, the founder and editor-in-chief of GreenBiz. They all agreed that much of corporate America has moved ahead of its customers when it comes to embracing green products.
Wait, it gets worse: Joel and Suzanne argued that consumers fool themselves about their green behavior. They buy a CFL bulb or green cleaning product or perhaps a Prius and then decide they’ve done their part for the planet. They tell pollsters that they consider sustainability factors in their purchasing decisions and describe themselves as “conscious consumers” but the reality is quite different. They’re greenwashing their own behavior, Joel noted.
Fisk told a story that illustrates this sometimes-depressing reality. SCJ has come up with a concentrated form of Windex that it sells in a small plastic pouch. Customers can snip off the top of the pouch, pour it into a refillable bottle and add water to get the equivalent of a 32-ounce bottle of Windex. The company saves money on packaging and energy, less carbon is emitted into the environment, less waste goes to landfill and a few pennies of savings can be passed along to the consumer. Everyone wins.
Everyone, that is, is the developing world where this Windex concentrate is sold. It’s not sold in the U.S., Fisk said, because Americans don’t care about saving a few pennies and they don’t want to deal with the inconvenience of mixing a small package of concentrate with water. They won’t make a small change that has a significant impact.
Aside from being lazy, consumers tend to be confused and habitual. They are confused by a plethora of eco-labels and competing claims.
“They consumer still does not understand what is green and what is not,” Fisk said.
Shoppers rely on the labels on products for information about sustainability, but they don’t trust the companies that make them, Suzanne said. They don’t have the time, the energy, the desire or focus to think about the consequences of their purchasing decisions.
“We just grab the same stuff off the shelf that we always grab off the shelf,” Suzanne said. “Where’s the moment where we can shift from automatic behavior to conscious choice?”
Discouraged by all this? Don’t be. Habitually modest but seriously green companies like SCJ are starting to talk more about their sustainability work. The company has to do so, Fisk said, to keep up with competitors like Clorox, Seventh Generation and Method. Better-educated consumers will be the result.
Besides that, objective guidance from third parties will help guide those consumers who care. UL Environment has begun to study consumer products. Good Guide is getting traction. The Sustainability Consortium is cranking up. All that will bring clarity to the question of which products are green. (See The Business of Rating Business.)
Finally, some very clever companies are going beyond education to reward consumers for greener behavior. Recyclebank is one. OPower is another. (See OPower, peer pressure and climate change.) Retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods are looking for ways nudge consumers towards better choices, or to make better choices for them.
In the end, it doesn’t take a majority of consumers to move a market, just a significant minority.
So remember how the song goes: The darkest hour is just before dawn.
Marc, Thanks for raising this point in just this way. I think of two large behavior changes that combined multiple nudges. One is curbside recycling. Give folks a bin and they fill it up- I am not sure of the impact BUT I do see the changed behavior. The second is reusable grocery bags. Again I am not sure of the impact or just how to replicate the mechanism BUT I do see a behavior change. We may not be rational but sometimes we are trainable.
Good examples, Louis, thanks. I’m sure we could come up with others–wearing seat belts, maybe. Given the political logjam (to put it kindly) in Washington, I think it will be up to all of us, as consumers and employees, to drive environmental change in the short run.
While it’s important to make postive behavior changes among consumers, we have to push much more for manufacturer behavior. Remember that for every pound of garbage people generate, about 7 pounds of waste are produced upstream in the manufacturing process before the product gets to the consumer. Almost all of the product’s environmental impact happens BEFORE the package is even opened. While consumers can play a role in purchasing environmentally-friendly products (or better yet – reduce consumption altogether), the way products are manufactured has got to change.
Just like we should be asking ourselves if we’re doing enough as individuals, so should companies. Regarding the Windex example, sure, it’s easy to say that “Americans don’t care about saving a few pennies and they don’t want to deal with the inconvenience of mixing a small package of concentrate with water” but I dare SC Johnson to try. I know I would do it for reasons that have very little to do with growing up in Europe! Perhaps I’m still in the minority by reading magazines such Real Simple but I’m sure they would not only advocate for soluble Windex mixture, they would probably come up with their own natural one, if they haven’t yet already.
Thanks for keeping the flame of optimism burning. I remain optimistic that with the right system conditions we can move consumer demand more quickly and passionately towards much more sustainable choices. “Green” is indeed a spectrum in the the marketplace. When there is a deeper understanding of the impacts of our behaviors I still believe that our culture can make rapid selections or deselections.
I believe, and hope, that Mr. Johnson has underestimated the U.S. consumer. Sure, maybe people won’t make a switch to save a few pennies. I can accept that. But, to rule out that we as a society aren’t ready to accept a little inconvenience for the environment is so last millennium. LOL In all seriousness, let’s not forget the ever-so-American orange juice. For 4 decades people spent more on the inconvenient frozen concentrate than any other form of orange juice on the market. It spurred the Florida orange industry. Who’s to say a little concentrated pouch of Windex couldn’t garner the same popularity.
I would love to see the commerical where Windex promotes the new bottles ‘A clear vision of a cleaner world’ and either stops using the traditional bottles (or changes more for them). Entertainment industry has made many things ‘cool’ to do – i.e. smoking. It would be great to see one of the Desperate Housewives clearning their windows using the Windex product (assuming it fits the plotline) for example.
I think we’re all guilty of doing this to a certain degree. I’ve traded in my shampoo and conditioner for baking soda and vinegar – each kept in reusable bottles. I make my own soap and grow my own food. But I still drive a SUV because it does what I need it to (haul people and livestock sometimes at the same time).
Marc, I think the issue runs deep within the mentality of our culture that largely revolves around consumerism. I think that Fisk really pointed to the source of the dilemma when he said:
“They consumer still does not understand what is green and what is not,” Fisk said.
I believe that in many cases, the misguided perspective of consumers that they are “doing their part” is partly perpetuated by the companies selling them the products. Consumers hear “buy CFL’s and be green” as if this purchase is going to change the face of sustainability in our country. The truth is that sustainability is not a technological fix (or a consumer product) to offset a wasteful lifestyle. Sustainability is the lifestyle itself that revolves around an idea of balance.
Sustainability isn’t just buying the Prius, it’s having a community where people can drive less. It’s not having a 4,000 SF house with a bunch of bells and whistles, it’s having a well designed 2,500 SF home. Whether or not American consumers will ever be “green” hinges largely on whether or not Americans will change the way they live, not just what products they are going to buy. Companies that market products as solutions do a disservice to the goal of a more sustainable culture.
Things are moving forward. People can realize that to have a refill pack can cost less so they don´t need another plastic bottle. Surely this doesn´t come up automatically but it happens from time to time. We all can read everywhere that to save actually means not to use plastic wrapping or so. Well, there are just a few things that may have an attribute “sustainable” and we are still unable to discern which exactly they can be.