How resilient is green?

Despite the nose-diving economy, consumers continue to green their consumption and have higher expectations for companies’ environmental practices.  

According to a recent 2009 Cone Consumer Environmental Survey, thirty four percent of American consumers indicate they are more likely to buy environmentally responsible products today, and another 44 percent indicate their environmental shopping habits have not changed as a result of the economy.  Even more surprising, fewer than ten percent of American consumers say they are less likely to buy green.

Companies Committed to Sustainability Outperform Their Peers During the Economic Downtturn

Companies looking for ways to survive in the current economic climate should consider sustainabilty. That's right. Doing good can help a company do well, according to a study released this February by A.T. Kearney, Inc., titled "Green Winners: The Performance of Sustainability-focused Companies in the Financial Crisis.

The study looked at 99 companies identified as having a strong commitment to sustainability and compared their performance with industry averages. The 99 companies were defined by the Sustainability Index and the Goldman Sachs Sustain Focus List.

Mike Duke, Wal-mart's heir CEO, has reaffirmed Wal-mart's committment to sustainability. In a recent company webcast, Duke clearly stated his intention not only to continue but even increase the Company's sustainability efforts.

"We want to accelerate our efforts in sustainability. We want to broaden our efforts," Duke said. "It's not something of the past. This is all about the future."

The incoming CEO's comments should assuage concerns that Wal-Mart's might retreat from the company's high-profile sustainability commitments.

The Hartman Group's latest report, "Sustainability: The Rise of Consumer Responsibility", gives further support that consumers aren't throwing out the (green) baby with the (economic decline) bathwater. The survey represents the latest report that shows environmental responsibility not going away during these difficult economic times.

In particular, the report found more than 75 percent consider environmental and social aspects in deciding what to buy and about a third are willing to pay more for those benefits.

Most impressive was their finding that more than 88 percent of consumers surveyed said they engage in what the researchers described as sustainable behavior. This includes becomming more conscious consumers of packaging, recycling, how a product was made, how workers were treated in the process and community issues.

With the economy nose-diving, analysts have been wondering whether consumers will continue to buy green products, which can cost more and be harder to find.

A recent and very comprehensive report, published this January 09 by The Boston Consulting Group, concludes this question with a resounding Yes: consumers will continue to seek out green products, despite the economy.

The venerable Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm, that works with mostly large corporations on business strategy supports its conclusion with impressive research. In its "Capturing the Green Advantage Consumer Companies".

I attended OMMA’s AdNets conference in NY on November 6th. The conference invited leading so-called horizontal and vertical ad networks as well as a host of luminaries from the agency and client marketing side. Here are a few notes and observations from the first half of the day:

Part 1: Morning Sessions

Samir Arora, CEO of Glam Media, spoke to the “media paradox of the Internet” to explain the rationale behind the growth of vertical media and advertising networks. Arora indicated that the Internet is the only media where there is no control over distribution. Even a major online portal such as Yahoo – with 74% reach among Web users – commands only 7% of overall Internet usage. By contrast, if you look at the top three TV networks, you’ll find they command a much larger percentage of usage.

Cause-related marketing can increase sales as much as 74 percent in certain consumer-goods categories, according to a recent study by Cone and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. In particular the study found a:

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) released today (August 26th) a four minute video clip entitled, "Sutainability Matters to All Stakeholders". The video focuses on consumers attitudes towards green and perceptions on sustainability.

The video supplements the recently released report by PWC and GMA on the the increasingly greening state of the food industry entitled, “The 2008 Food Beverage and Consumer Products Industry Report: Achieving Superior Financial Performance in a Challenging Economy." That report concludes that sustainability has become a business imperative that can boost corporate value.

Coca-Cola Co is working to on several prototype beverages using Chinese herbal cures. Analysts have speculated the project could be as important to the company's future as its original 1886 formula, which fused coca leaves with African kola nuts.

The secretive project involves employees throughout the company but executives have only mentioned the collaboration in a short news release issued when Coke and the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences opened a research center in Beijing last October.

Coca-Cola recently announced specific, strategic goals for progress in sustainability. According to Coke CEO John F. Brock. "We continue to embed CSR throughout our business [and] it is playing an increasingly important role in helping us to capture operational efficiencies, drive effectiveness, and eliminate waste."

Coke's recent sustainability document (PDF) reports the following specific goals in the areas of water stewardship, sustainable packaging, and emissions reduction.