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Consumers’ green-leaning attitudes for 2010: More than three-quarters looking to buy from socially responsible businesses

By | January 1, 2010, 5:46 AM PST

There’s a new survey out covering American adults attitudes about going greener in the New Year.

More than half of the people responding to a poll by New York-based marketing consultant Tiller (53 percent) said they have at least one green resolution in mind, up a few percentage points from the last time Tiller conducted research on this topic two years ago. Specifically, more than 85 percent expressed their intention to reduce household energy consumption in 2010, followed by plans to recycle (84 percent) and buy from environmentally responsible companies (76 percent).

The research covered 1,000 adults between Nov. 2, 2009, and Dec. 2, 2009, and it was conducted by Mathew Greenwald & Associates.

The last finding in particular should be of interest to the people reading this blog, especially since about half of those surveyed said that they already have declined to buy a certain product because the were concerned about the impact that it (or its packaging) might have on the environment. Isn’t that pretty compelling reason to get with the program?

Women are more likely than men to have “green guilt” over not living a green lifestyle. For example, about half of them are carrying their own bag to the supermarket compared with 30 percent of men. Here’s an observation by Tiller principal, James Marren:

“Women are clearly more focused than men on incorporating environmental responsibility into daily household activities. That’s encouraging, given that women continue to carry most of the burden of household management. To the extent that women can bring other family members along, perhaps environmentally responsible behaviors will take root even more strongly - with some genuine, enduring benefits to the environment.”

Here’s more about the survey.

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Heather Clancy

About Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy

Contributing Editor, Business

Heather Clancy has written for United Press International, ZDNet, Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. She holds a degree from McGill University. She is based in New Jersey.

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Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy
Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I'm also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I'm covering in my blog.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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