This week, Environmental Leader covered Cone Communication’s 2013 Green Gap Trend Tracker report on American consumer behavior. Despite the 71 percent of Americans “thinking green,” as noted above, only 42 percent of consumers dispose of products in a way that fulfills the intended environmental benefit of those products. While thoughts may not always translate into action, Americans are spending more time researching the environmental impact of the products they consume. Consumers also think companies should educate consumers on proper product disposal and currently feel that companies should do more to help consumers understand environmental terms and messages.
Turning toward a company’s business practices, FastCoExist reported on the survey conducted by Good.Must.Grow about consumers’ concerns and behaviors. Of the 1,015 Americans surveyed, the majority noted that they care about a company’s social responsibility in a variety of areas, including the treatment of employees, environmental impact, transparency, and impact on society. Interestingly, 63 percent of people trust company claims about social responsibility only “sometimes.”
The research from Cone Communications and Good.Must.Grow adds credibility to the argument that a company’s sustainability practices have an effect on its bottom line. At Microsoft we do our best to engage our customers and provide the information they need to better understand our sustainability initiatives, and we expect that the importance consumers place on our sustainability efforts when making purchasing decisions will continue to grow.