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American consumers can’t buy a medal in environmental meet
By Tim Wilson, Editor & Writer, Boston College Center
Americans revel in the accomplishments of U.S. athletes in international competitions like the Olympics. But a survey finds the American consumer is no Michael Phelps when the worldwide measure of success has a green rather than gold tint.
In the second annual survey by GlobeScan and National Geographic of consumer choice and the environment, the United States comes in dead last, just behind its neighbor to the north, Canada.
Known as the Greendex, the survey is a comprehensive measure of consumer behavior in areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods. It ranks consumers in 17 countries based on the environmental impact of their discretionary and nondiscretionary consumption patterns in these four categories. Similar to judging in Olympic diving, the lower the impact the higher the score.
As in the first survey, the top-scoring consumers of 2009 are in the developing economies. India leads the pack with a score of 59.5 with Brazil and China close behind. New additions to the survey South Korea and Argentina run neck and neck in fourth place, followed by Mexicans, Hungarians and Russians. Ranks ninth through thirteenth are occupied by Europeans, along with Australian and Japanese consumers.
Canada and the United States hit the pool with twin belly flops at 47.5 and 43.7 respectively.
One area where there was worldwide improvement is housing. This index weighs factors such as the size of a home relative to the number of inhabitants, home heating and cooling, retrofits that increase efficiency, purchases of renewable energy, use of energy-efficient major appliances, and water usage.
Even Americans are able to stay in the middle of the pack on the measure of the environmental impact of their housing, scoring a 59 to equal the international average. Since the energy-saving measures that help the environment also help keep down oil, gas and electric bills, this is probably an indication that when another kind of green is at stake Americans rise to the occasion.
You can take an abbreviated survey and see where you rank on the Greendex scale at www.nationalgeographic.com/greendex . You can also check out the Greendex survey results by country, test your knowledge of some basic green issues and get tips on living a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Let us know how you rank, and why you think the U.S. continues to rank so low on this survey.
