{"id":171,"date":"2007-05-01T09:59:29","date_gmt":"2007-05-01T13:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environmentalriskmanagers.com\/erm\/americans-report-increased-environmental-consciousness-and-expectation-that-companies-will-take-action\/"},"modified":"2007-05-01T09:59:29","modified_gmt":"2007-05-01T13:59:29","slug":"americans-report-increased-environmental-consciousness-and-expectation-that-companies-will-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/americans-report-increased-environmental-consciousness-and-expectation-that-companies-will-take-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Report Increased Environmental Consciousness And Expectation That Companies Will Take Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin: 1ex\"><font face=\"verdana\"><strong>environmental Strategist,  between the lines:<\/strong> This report shows environmentally conscious  consumers are a rapidly growing part of the economy and represent 1\/3  of Americans. As consumers continue to get educated on our environmental  issues they will become the majority, probably in the next few years.  The survey points out businesses must have a credible environmental  strategy<\/font><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <\/font><font face=\"verdana\">that  reaches across their operations. The horizontal and vertical  impact of an environmental Management Strategy (eMS) has been successfully  helping businesses to gain a competitive advantage. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"verdana\">The only constant we have is  change and our environment is changing the way business is conducted.  According to this competitive environmental intelligence 93% of Americans  believe businesses have a responsibility to preserve the environment,  as a business owner, that percentage gets my attention.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\"><strong>Americans Report Increased Environmental  Consciousness And Expectation That Companies Will Take Action<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">5\/1\/2007 <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Boston, MA &#8211; The 2007 Cone Consumer Environmental  Survey released recently finds one-third of Americans (32%) report heightened  interest in the environment compared to a year ago. In addition, they  are overwhelmingly looking to companies to act: 93% of Americans believe  companies have a responsibility to help preserve the environment. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The new study indicates a large number  of Americans are now environmental &#8220;doers&#8221; themselves- in  the past year, almost half (47%) have purchased environmentally-friendly  products, more than one in five (21%) have donated to an environmental  organization, and almost that many (18%) have advocated for environmental  issues. Most Americans report they are also making efforts in their  personal lives to intentionally reduce their impact on the environment,  including: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Conserving energy- 93% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Recycling- 89% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Conserving water- 86% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Telling family\/friends about    environmental issues- 70%<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><strong>What Americans Expect of Business<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Americans are calling on companies to  be proactive in their day-to-day operations when it comes to the environment.  Concerns over packaging and transportation compete with pollution as  an issue. Solid majorities support meaningful company actions including: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Reducing pollution through    office and manufacturing operations- 71% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Designing products\/packaging    with more environmentally-friendly contents and minimal packaging- 69% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Distributing and transporting    products more efficiently- 69% Communicating environmental efforts to    consumers and employees so each group can support those efforts- 62% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Donating money to environmental    causes- 59% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Lobbying for environmentally-friendly    policies- 57%<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&#8220;Americans clearly have a heightened  environmental consciousness, and their expectations now touch on a range  of business practices,&#8221; explains Mike Lawrence, executive vice president  of Corporate Responsibility, Cone LLC. &#8220;Companies need to have a credible  environmental strategy that reaches across their operations if they  expect to secure consumer trust and loyalty.&#8221; <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><strong>Consumers Will Use Their Purchasing  Power to Reward or Punish<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">The vast majority of Americans (91%)  say they have a more positive image of a company when it is environmentally  responsible. On the flip side, almost as many (85%) indicated they would  consider switching to another company&#8217;s products or services because  of a company&#8217;s negative corporate responsibility practices. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Among those Americans who report buying  environmentally-friendly products, these items include: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Products with recycled content-    62% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Energy-efficient home improvements-    56% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Cleaning supplies- 48% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Organic or other third-party    certified foods\/beverages- 24% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Energy-efficient cars- 13% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Green apparel- 10%<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">In addition, many Americans report there  are factors that would motivate them to pay more for environmentally-friendly  products. These include: <\/font><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Saving money in the long-term-    72% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Shopping convenience\/readily    available- 63% <\/font><\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Health and welfare of future    generations- 63%<\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&#8220;This is a call-to-action for companies.  It&#8217;s an opportunity for innovation in product design, packaging, and  distribution,&#8221; says Julia Hobbs Kivistik, executive vice president  of Cause Branding, Cone LLC. &#8220;Companies ultimately need to engage  consumers and effectively communicate the impact their business practices  and products have on the environment. Consumers are listening.&#8221; <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><strong>Communicating the Impact<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Advertising is the leading way Americans  prefer companies communicate their social and environmental issues and  practices (45%), but electronic communications, particularly via company  Web sites, are growing in popularity. Communication by way of a company&#8217;s  Web site now falls just behind advertising as the second leading outlet  for social and environmental communication (41%), reinforcing the idea  that as companies become more environmentally-friendly, their communications  vehicles should too. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><em>SOURCE: Cone<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>environmental Strategist, between the lines: This report shows environmentally conscious consumers are a rapidly growing part of the economy and represent 1\/3 of Americans. As consumers continue to get educated on our environmental issues they will become the majority, probably in the next few years. The survey points out businesses must have a credible environmental&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/americans-report-increased-environmental-consciousness-and-expectation-that-companies-will-take-action\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Americans Report Increased Environmental Consciousness And Expectation That Companies Will Take Action<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/estrategist.com\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}