

Courtesy Digital Vision/Digital Vision/Thinkstock
Men and women are divided on whether buying eco-friendly products really makes a difference.
For Michael and Vanessa Martin, shopping for paper towels, dish detergent and tile cleaner often leads to a discussion in the supermarket aisles about the environment. Michael would prefer to spend less on conventional products while Vanessa believes itâs important to choose products that are eco-friendly.Â
âI go for the more expensive, green products, and he looks at the prices and rolls his eyes,â says Vanessa. âIâm standing there saying to him, âDo you know how many chemicals are in those products?â but he feels like if itâs on the shelf, itâs safe.â
Michael admits that price is a factor when it comes to shopping for green productsâbut itâs not the only reason that he often fills his cart with products that arenât touted as eco-friendly.
âWith some of the labels, Iâm skeptical,â he says.
When it comes to making eco-friendly purchasing decisions, the Martins are a typical couple, according to a new survey released by Crowd Scienceâs Just Ask!
The online survey, which tallied responses from 1,299 respondents in October 2010, found that compared with women, men are almost twice as likely to believe that shopping green makes no difference. In fact, 16 percent of men felt that shopping green doesnât make a difference and 13 percent think the green movement is nothing more than a marketing ploy.
âThe green movement is a very important element of our current shopping environment,â notes
Sandra Marshall, vice president of research for Crowd Science, the California-based research firm behind the survey. âWeâre bombarded with information about companies that claim to offer green products, and consumers respond to those claims in different ways.â
Compared to men, women are more likely to choose products with eco-friendly packaging, are willing to pay substantially more for green products and believe it makes a difference for companies to follow environmentally friendly practices.
âWomen seem to be more eco-centric in their shopping practices,â Marshall says.
One quarter of respondents over 55 (both men and women) were also more likely to doubt green marketing claims.
Marshall believes that some of the skepticism is warranted.
âThere is a lot of green-washing,â she says. âPeople see all of those labelsâgreen, natural, sustainable, organicâand wonder which ones they can trust.â
In addition to green purchasing decisions, the Crowd Science survey also looked at ethical shopping behaviors. They found that 43 percent of respondents have boycotted products for political or ethical reasons and 34 percent always buy local when given the choice.
âThis was such a positive finding,â says Marshall. âItâs great to see people taking an active role in their purchasing patterns so they can have an impact.â
There is more good news for the environment: Research shows that women make 80 percent of purchasing decisions, which means that if women believe shopping for green products is important and theyâre willing to seek out items with eco-friendly packaging and pay more for green goods, those products will sell.
Just ask the Martins.
âIf she wants to buy the green product, we do,â says Michael. âItâs an argument Iâll never win.â
The survey is part of a larger series of surveys Crowd Science is conducting about shopping attitudes. At this time, the company has no formal plans to apply the research, though Marshall hopes that their findings might be useful to companies who are examining how they market green products.