- Becky Ebenkamp

The good news is consumers are "going green." But the bad news is they are still pretty green when it comes to understanding what the term really means.

"Here's the big ah-ha!," said Suzanne Shelton, CEO of Shelton Group, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based ad agency that specializes in energy efficiency and sustainability. "If you were an alien and you landed on the planet in April of this year, you would think that the 'green' market was pretty mature because you'd be hearing about it everywhere—every newspaper, every TV show you turn on somebody is talking about being green. But this is not a mature market."

Shelton Group recently conducted a national study, called Eco Pulse, which asked consumers open-ended and multiple-choice questions about green issues. What it found was a whole lot of confusion.

For instance, while half (49%) of respondents said a company's environmental record is important in their purchasing decisions. But that number dropped to 21% when consumers were asked if this had actually driven them to choose one product over another. And only 7% could name the product they purchased.

"What that tells you is even though we're talking the talk, it isn't necessarily translating into action," Shelton said. "People are interested in being green, but they don't necessarily know what to do specifically, and when people are confused, they do nothing."

The study also asked consumers to name which features a home would need to have before they would consider it green. Four in 10 (42%) said they didn't know, while 28% said solar, 12% said compact fluorescent light bulbs and 10% named Energy Star appliances. Nothing else really registered. In a second survey that listed 17 features, consumers were asked to check those a home must have before they'd deem it green. The average number was 10.4.
 
Even something as simple as defining what makes a green cleaning product had many puzzled. While the top answer ("no harmful toxic ingredients or chemicals") was on point, the runner up ("the packaging is made of recycled or recyclable materials") missed the point entirely.

"We are still in the early phases of the product life cycle," said Shelton, whose agency clients include BP Solar and the American Institute of Architects. ". . . What we have to do as marketers is help [consumers] understand it in bite-size ways."

Additionally, the study found that:
 
- Most Americans put their personal comfort ahead of the environment. When asked, "Given a choice between your comfort, your convenience or the environment, which do you most often choose?" Forty-six percent chose comfort and 31% chose the environment.

- A significant number (40%) admitted to negative or ambivalent responses ("skeptical," "irritated," "guilty" or "unaffected") to increased media attention regarding our impact on the environment, while 60% answered in a positive fashion ("better educated" or "glad").

- When asked, "How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Global warming, or climate change, is occurring, and it is primarily caused by human activity." Fifty-seven percent agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. 

- When asked why most companies that adopt environmentally friendly practices do so, the most common response (47%) was "to make their company look better to the public." Only 13% believed it was "because their owners/shareholders care about the environment."

- The fact that a company makes a green product doesn't mean it will be perceived as green if its manufacturing plants aren't. Only 4% of consumers chose "a company that has manufacturing plants contaminated with chemical waste but manufactures wind turbines to produce green power."