A growing number of American consumers would like to tell President Obama to focus on the economy first before tackling environmental issues, according to research published today. The finding, part of the monthly Green Confidence Index, is that while significant numbers of Americans support the administration's environmental stance, their principal concern remains focused on the economy.
A growing number of American consumers would like to tell President Obama to focus on the economy first before tackling environmental issues, according to research published today.
The finding, part of the monthly Green Confidence Index, is that while significant numbers of Americans support the administration's environmental stance, their principal concern remains focused on the economy.The number of Americans preferring that the president "focus on the economy first" or "keep a balanced perspective" rose over the past month, while the number urging President Obama to "educate us about the issues" dropped.
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The Green Confidence Index is a monthly snapshot of Americans' attitudes about and confidence in their leaders and institutions, nationally and locally, on the subject of environmental responsibility, as well as in their own understanding of issues and their willingness to make green purchasing choices. During October, the Index fell four points from a month earlier, from 103.6 to 99.5. The Index was set in July 2009 at 100.0.
According to Chief Research Officer Amy Hebard of Earthsense, whose company creates the Index: "Should we worry about a four-point drop in the Index? Not yet. Confusion in this market is broad and deep and, with the economy still in jitters, consumers' confidence in going green will take time to build before we realize the pent-up demand we've seen. As we approach the holiday season, a key question will be whether or not the drop we saw in October is the start of a downward slide or just a one-month blip."
The Index is based on a monthly survey of more than 2,500 adults who are nationally representative of the U.S. adult online population. It is calculated using responses in three areas:
- Responsibility: how leaders and institutions are perceived to be addressing environmental issues (weight: 40 percent)
- Information: the adequacy of information available to make informed decisions (20 percent)
- Purchasing: past and future purchases of green products (40 percent)
Article continues: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/11/17/americans-interest-green-sags-during-downturn
