Wednesday 31 October 2007

IPC Green Matters Event

Thanks to Neil P and the lovely people at Blue Fin towers (and what a beautiful office, sustainable too I'm told) for hosting today's event on the day my book actually hits the shops. And lovely to meet all the people who came by afterwards to say hi, or who are following up at the blog address I gave in my charts.

As well as an update on sustainability at Time Warner and thoughts from the frontline from several magazine editors, IPC lshared findings from their Green Matters research which was with 3000 respondents on their customer database. It's highly consistent with other green consumer surveys, but what's really interesting about this one is they have focused on 6 key areas of behaviour and determined concern, willingness and action on the part of different demographic segments.

Here are some highlights:
- 89% declare themselves concerned about the environment
- 95% said it was everyone's responsibility
(41% said 'it's my responsibility' presumably ie mainly mine, vs shared with others)

Rubbish and recycling:
- nearly everyone (even young men) recycle
- depth of behaviour - the full 3Rs varies
- older, empty nesters who have most time do most

Energy saving
- a prime motivation is saving money too
- most people had 'turned to 30' and nearly all cited the Ariel campaign as the reason
- mass market and older generations lead the way; more used to counting the pennies
- young men still do often leave everything on standby

Shopping
- people welcome the supermarkets taking the lead
- but confusion reigns on the best options
(and doesnt it just - eg organic vs fairtrade vs local)
- only 1/5 consider environmental impact when clothes shopping

Transport
- 38% already use their car less
- 31% considering using it less
- people are defensive, cars seen as a 'right' yet clearly message is getting through too

Flying
- again people are still resistant eg 42% "wouldnt consider flying less"
- and yet flying worries people:
a great deal 34%
a small amount 55%
not at all 10%
(stacks up with other data showing about 75% feel guilty when they fly)

Full details of research from Neil Perkins
Tel: 0203 148 3600

Neil also interviewed me on green issues, and he will be posting this at
http://neilperkin.typepad.com/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These statistics are very encouraging but also beg the question; How does this translate into measurable differences in peoples actions in the long term?

In these surveys, much rests on the way things are phrased and how this elicits a certain rational desire to behave in the 'right' way. Peoples perceptions of what they do and how effective it is is, I believe, often very out of step with the reality of their actions. This is inevitable, particularly where environmental cues and the 'normal' behavior of the social group is different to the intended behavior.