Green: The New Norm

12th September 2007

A partnership between four of Britain’s top environmental organisations and leading consumer brands has just been launced aiming to help and inspire people to live more sustainable lives. By using products displaying the Future Friendly logo shoppers will save energy, water or reducing waste. The initiative is backed by the Energy Saving Trust, Global Cool, Waste Watch and Waterwise.

Findings from the Future Friendly launch report reveal that more Britons are waking up to individual action on the environment, stating that sustainable living is part of a new style of citizenship and that sustainable living should soon become the social ‘norm’. The comprehensive survey by leading think tank The Future Laboratory highlights that Britons now realise they can have a greater impact than government with 49% stating it is down to the individual to take the lead. 32% of young people 18-24 think being environmentally aware as a matter of personal politics, 41% believing individual action is the only way forward to combat climate change.

In the survey 72% say they care about saving the environment and 47% believe environmental awareness marks a good citizen from a bad one. While politicians scored 5% as a key influencer the media holds the most potential to change behaviour - TV scoring 51%, newspapers 34% and the internet 26%.

Green: The New Norm.
According to the research, 68% of those surveyed said that the notion of “green” would soon become obsolete – not through any lack of interest but rather that the majority viewed behaviours like recycling (91%), switching lights off (66%) and driving Hybrid cars (51%) as becoming standard practice within the next 20 years.

“The study highlights the impact and importance of everyone doing small things everyday - from unplugging mobile phone chargers and not leaving a tap running to switching off lights and turning off TVs - making simple everyday changes can all contribute to making the average household more sustainable,’ says environmental expert Joanna Yarrow. ‘Behaviour described as ‘green’ today will become absorbed happily into everyday life’.

Gender Divide
The research also highlighted a distinct gender divide when it comes to attitudes towards the environment with men more prone to grander gestures and women favouring smaller, more practical steps to achieve the same result. Of every day measures people are already taking, women outperform men in most categories such as recycling (87%), turning off lights (84%) and not leaving appliances on standby (72% vs. 65% of men) while men prefer technological or mechanical approaches to problem solving such as insulating their homes (41% vs. 35%) and cycling more (13% vs. 7%). Women were also more likely than men to use products that would enable small but consistent changes (77% v. 65%). Men however tend to feel global conditions are outside their control, only 13% felt that things they do now could make a difference to the future, while one in four women believe their actions can and do make a difference.

“Small steps, acorns, or token gestures – whatever you would like to call them, changing consumer habits is vital to sustainable living, albeit by degrees,” says Future Friendly spokesperson Sir Trevor McDonald. “Large scale events have helped raise awareness, an important step forward, but they won’t trigger a revolution. As the Future Friendly survey highlights evolution as the most likely option with individual action at the heart of such change.”

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