People Today That Elect To Live Green

Recently the concept of living green has grown to be a very well-known topic in the media. Industries that focus on environmentally safe products will create new jobs and cultivate new energy natural resources to replace fossil fuels.

At the end of the day though, the green economy is going to be determined by consumers who are going to be purchasing green technologies.
So the big question we need to examine is why are people opting to live green?

The issue is something I ask myself and I try to ascertain people's frame of mind. The obvious explanation is that many people who make an effort to live green are stressed about saving the environment.

Or it's feasible that many people are fascinated by the latest green devices.

Another cause is that people would like to save money, despite the primary high cost of going green.

Nonetheless, even though they are all sound reasons, in an write-up in the Wall Street Journal says that some analysis was done to determine what the trigger is to living green and it was none of the answers above. They say that the biggest motivating factor for people becoming environmentally friendly is simply peer pressure.

Yes that is right, traditional peer pressure.

Recently an experience was carried out where two placards were put into hotel bathrooms. Both placards encouraged guests to reuse the towels instead of having it dispatched for cleaning. On just one of the placards it said "Show your admiration for nature".

The alternative one said "Join your fellow attendees in helping to preserve the environment". All in all 75% of people did engage in the towel reusing programme, which is a reasonable amount in itself.

As you will have guessed, most people reused their towels when reading the second placard that mentioned their fellow guests were doing it also. In a follow up study the placards were modified slightly and the second one now read "75% of visitors using this suite reused their towels". The modified placard got better final results than the original.

Basically, like life itself, peer pressure operates very well in this instance. Telling most people that others are doing something rather than just telling them to save the planet is more effective at getting people to be green.

The study and its final results give good insight on just how companies should approach their marketing efforts. That sense of guilt caused by peer pressure has numerous people taking action consequently where they would not have accomplished anything otherwise. And so the best option to market a green product is to make the customer feel guilty for not doing it.

No doubt they'll employ sales strategies like in the analysis.

I was quite suprised at exactly what the results of the study showed. Still when I really contemplate it, it really not all that suprising. People generally, it seems, need to feel like they belong and do not desire to stand out.

So that is certainly the real reason folks would like to go green. In spite of all the reasons of saving the planet, it's good old peer pressure that will cause people to make a change.