A Bright Future for Green Products

Researches indicate that attitudes of U.S. people toward sustainability issues continue to be improved. In a research entitled U.S. Consumer Attitudes on Green, Richard Matthews (2011) states that U.S. consumer’s awareness of sustainability concept has been improved by 15% from 2007 to 2010. This research also points out that 10% of customers “consistently make green buying decisions”. Before that, a survey by Cone (2009) reveals that 35% of Americans are more interested in environmental issues that they were a year ago. Whereas, a research by Experian Simon (2009) unveils that “65% of adults are making a conscious effort to recycle and more than two-thirds believe that they have a personal obligation to the environment”.

One of the factors that help improve the green attitudes is the enhancement of green technology. In a research entitled The State of Green Business, Makower et al (2011) confirm that investment in green technology has increased by 7.6% in 2010, reached nearly $4 billion. Significant portion of this investment is in energy efficient products, solar energy and bio-based products. The research also shows that clean-energy patents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office increased by more than 67% in 2010 to 1,882 patterns (Makower et al, 2011).

Thanks to the improvement of green attitudes and green investment, green products are getting more various and available in the market. In the research entitled Measuring the Green Economy, U.S. Department of Commerce (2010) applied green product and service definition to over 22,000 product codes listed in 2007 Economic Census. This means that green products are getting more various in the market.

To distribute green products to customers, retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Target, Menards, Home Depot and hundreds of online stores are now including green goods in their product offerings. Nonetheless, no green retailer or distributor is recognized as dominants of green market. Rather, each seller has its own market place more or less related to its store location and current accounts. This means that green market is still fragmented in terms of distribution.

Higher adoption and higher availability of green product make green business more and more promising. Packaged Facts (2010) estimate that the U.S. green household cleaning sales in 2009 reached $557 million. This market is also expected to approach $2 billion by 2014. Meanwhile, Pike Research (2010) estimates that energy efficient home improvement market was over $38 billion in 2009 and this market will surpass $50 billion by 2014. In the personal care market, Kline Group (2011) estimates that green product sales was about $3.5 billion in 2009 and will approach $6 billion in 2014. Ultimately, all estimations indicate that green business will continue to grow by double digits in the next five years.

Even though these trends and forecasts are subject to change, it is reasonable to conclude that green products have a bright future.