What Motivators Are There to Go Green?
Motivators that encourage people to go green in their homes, include social pressure, information they find on the Internet and the prospect of protecting their health by buying green products. Governments also play a role in motivating consumers to go green by offering tax incentives for green consumption.
Other People Are Reading
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Social Pressure
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In the same way that smokers face increasing social pressure to quit smoking, because their habit is harmful to their own health, and to the health of others, pressure from others who know the dangers of climate change influences people to go green. An example is when consumers go to the supermarket. They see other shoppers putting groceries in green reusable bags and they reach for the green bags next to the checkout counter. The New York Times Green blog offered another example: National Grid, provider of electricity and gas, gave home energy usage reports to consumers to show how they compared to their neighbors. The pressure to use less energy resulted in a drop in energy consumption.
How much people are motivated to go green when social pressures are not at work is less clear. One Burst Media Survey in December 2009 found consumers use the Internet as their primary source of information about green products.
Lifestyle
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Burst Media Survey also found people who identified themselves as 100 percent green also associated their green choices with a lifestyle. These consumers are motivated to go green, says Burst Media, by reasons such as "to live a better quality of life," "good for the community," "desire to make a difference," and "to set an example for others to follow." Consumers can be motivated by effective marketing, by vendors of green products and services, but they will turn to the Internet to verify the authenticity of "green" claims.
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Government Incentives
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Government tax incentives also motivate consumers to go green. The website of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is a quick place for consumers to read about applicable tax incentives. Consumers may also participate in state and local incentive programs. The DOE website details applicable tax credits--energy efficient materials for homes (aka green building); Energy Star appliances; automotive tax credits (for hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles); and residential alternative energy (including solar, wind, geothermal and fuel cell energy systems). Consumers must meet the terms of each government program. People who own businesses can also find programs at all three levels of government (national, state and local) to go green in their own companies.
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References
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