You know the word ‘meh‘?
Have you sensed a bit of ‘meh‘ lately on the state of the American consumer re: the environment? Marc Gunther titled a recent post, “Will American Consumers Ever Go “Green?” and a Harris Interactive poll headlined that fewer Americans said they are “going green”.
We here at Practically Green believe there IS a profound cultural shift underway towards healthier, greener living. It’s not as fast many feel is needed. It can be hard for rational science-types to understand why certain issues blow to the top while other, more critical ones, languish. And, certain green behaviors ebb and flow driven by a number of factors. But overall, Americans (particularly Moms) are embracing serious, real, healthy green changes in their lives.
How do we know this? Because we now have enough people and green action plans on Practically Green to be able to make statistically significant projections. We have a hot-off-the-press infographic to showcase what Americans ARE planning to do to live healthier and greener. This is not just “talking” about green. These actions are on “to do” lists. How cool is that?!! Wait: how cool are you?!! These are YOUR plans!
So: what’s trending right now on Practically Green? (click image for full size).
We love the overall momentum around composting, gardening, and rain barrels. Since I LIVE the gender differences every day with my better half, not a whole lot of surprise there. He’s all over the energy, water, and frugal green actions. I’m the overactive checker (as Laurie David dubbed it in her recent, excellent blog post for us). We’re having fun trying to explain Boston vs. San Francisco: Impact of college students? San Francisco-ites are just greener to start with? All thoughts welcome!
We have lots of great slices and dices of this data and will share more insights as we continue to analyze the trends. But the fact we even have this data requires me to pause for minute.
Think about this: on Earth Day last year, Practically Green wasn’t even live yet. And now we have tens of thousands of people actively using our service to find out how green they are, plan and track their progress, and compare and share their healthy green changes with neighbors, friends, colleagues.
We are truly awed, honored and extremely appreciative that you, our earliest users, have given us one of your most precious resources–your time–to help bring this service to life.
Someone asked me recently, “What’s your grand vision?” It’s challenging, but we think it’s achievable: We want every family in America to create a healthy green action plan and share their actions with their friends and neighbors. Because we know that people change when their friends and neighbors change. And you, and we, ARE changing. It’s just sometimes hard to know what someone did, because healthy green changes can be invisible–behind walls and cupboards and boxes and in the basement. But thanks to Practically Green, I found out I was an e-billing laggard (and changed!). I can email my friend Jon about solar and energy management because I now know he’s done all this. We know we have room to improve (all sites do!), but we believe our tools make the process of going greener and healthier smarter, easier and way more fun. Which makes finding and taking that next step easier. And it’s that next step that is the important one because progress is what matters!
I am convinced that times, they are a changing.
Happy Earth Day!
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4 Comments to 'The Greening of America: Top Green Actions Planned for Earth Day and Beyond…'
April 24, 2011
Hi Susan,
It’s truly incredible what Practically Green–you and the entire community of users–has been able to accomplish over the past year. Practically Green takes brilliant advantage of the dynamics of social media to generate widespread enthusiasm for going green, by making the process easy, fun, and–well-social. There IS a cultural shift going on and Practically Green is on its leading edge.
I do wonder, though, about the extent to which the growing enthusiasm for and interest in going green is contributing to meaningful and lasting social change. At some level we simply have to trust that our individual actions matter and that by sharing our actions and action plans with each other we create a ripple effect that spreads out and influences the broader systems we are a part of. But at another level it would be nice to know, in a scientific sort of way, what difference all of this makes.
For example, it would be nice to know whether Practically Green users actually do the things on their to do lists. It would also be nice to know whether the actions we are taking result in measurable reductions to our environmental impact (e.g., it’s one thing to have an energy audit or insulate your house; it’s quite another to lower your energy consumption).
As someone who is passionate about green living and works to help others make greener, healthier choices, I believe strongly that individual choices make a difference. I believe that all of the Practically Green action plans add up to a better world. But I’d also love to see some data that justifies my belief.
Perhaps you will take this on as one of your next challenges?
Rachel
April 26, 2011
Rachel–GREAT comments. Thank you! We are tackling ONE of the challenges you mention, which is *real* impact data. Our new groups feature released this weekend includes the collective impact of each action on kWh, water, trees, GHG emissions. You can now click on the Groups tab and see the impact that your facebook friends, neighbors and other social groups are making collectively. Because saving 1/4 of a tree by switching to reusable towels for a year is frankly a little depressing. But if all your friends do it and collectively you save an acre of forest. Well now that’s motivating!
Verification is the other challenge that we haven’t solved and aren’t sure where this fits relative to other priorities. Are people really doing what they say they are? And in the case of a persistent behavior change, how much or how often? 55% of the time, 85% of the time, ALL of the time?
On one hand, we think by having social groups connected it keeps people more honest because their friends will know that they don’t have a hybrid, for example. By having only nominal rewards, there is little incentive to cheat (and you are only cheating yourself, really…). But it IS on the honor system and it’s something we, today, think is OK that way. In the future, we may decide there’s a level, for example, that requires verification. Or an award that does. Or we may require a link into actual home data or purchase data to reach certain levels. All brainstorms now, but it’s fun to think about and thank you for asking!
April 29, 2011
Thanks for this response Susan.
I think the issue I was trying to get at isn’t so much cheating as it is the reality that projected and actual impacts are often different. We see this, for example, with the energy performance of LEED buildings not bearing up to anticipated levels of efficiency.
I especially appreciate hearing your thoughts about verification and where it fits with your other priorities. As someone who works on creating greener, healthier home environments, I’m very interested in measurable/verifiable impacts. But many things can’t be measured or even predicted–especially things as nebulous as a social movement.
Thanks for all you’re doing!
May 7, 2011
[...] what people are wanting and planning to do. For Earth Day, we shared our first infographic of the Top 10 Healthy Green Actions for all people, and found ourselves on MSNBC showing it [...]
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