by: Dick Stroud
Whenever I tell people that older people are more environmentally
‘aware’ (whatever that means) than the young they are surprised.
Logically you would think the older you get the less concerned you are
about the state of the environment since you are not going to be around
to suffer the consequences.
I guess it is the thought of what legacy you are handing over to your
children/grandchildren. Having decided that you will be spending most
of their inheritance you had better do something about the state of the
planet.
Any credible research that has been done in the UK
shows older means more environmentally concerned. It is interesting to
see that this same picture occurs in the US.
Focalyst (the joint venture between AARP and Kantar) has just issued one of its rare press releases about: “It’s good to Be Green: Socially Conscious Shopping Behaviours among Boomers”.
According
to the survey results, 40-million boomers use their purchasing power to
buy environmentally safe brands. Now what the press release doesn’t say
is the extent of this green-aware purchasing. My bet is that you have a
small (probably very small) core of ultra-greens, who spend their life
searching for minimum carbon footprint goods in degradable packaging.
For the majority (big majority) it is a light tinge of green that
drives a tiny proportion of their purchasing.
Where the UK and
the US differ is over the correlation between income and greenism. In
the UK, richer means greener – as far as the 50-plus are concerned.In
the US it is the opposite. Weird.
Original Post: http://www.20plus30.com/blog/2007/12/green-ish-50-plus.html