Consumers don’t trust green product claims, survey says

Eight in ten Americans don’t believe companies are addressing all of their environmental impacts, and only 44% trust companies’ green claims, according to research by Cone Communications. Some 43% of consumers actively seek out environmental information on the products they buy, according to the survey. When purchasing an environmental product, 81% are likely to be swayed by an ecolabel such as Energy Star or WaterSense. And 80% would choose a product if its packaging featured specific data detailing, for instance, how much plastic was saved over an earlier version.
Environmental imagery on packaging, such as a mountain ranges or trees, would sway 44% of consumers, the survey says.
In general, green consumers are getting more savvy about products’ environmental claims. In this year’s survey just 36% of consumers thought that products labeled “environmentally friendly” have a positive impact on the environment – rather than just being less damaging than non-green products. Some 42% of Americans have been discouraged from buying a green product because they believed it cost more than the traditional product, and a third believed the environmentally preferred product would not be of equal quality, the survey says (Newsletter Environmental leader, 28 March 2012).