Does Green Consumerism Have To Take A Backseat During A Recession?

This question was inspired by a post over at the Good Human.

Ford announced a 40% drop in their January sales.  The US Senate has been talking about an $885 billion economic stimulus bill.  Organics all over the globe are facing hard times.  The US and world economies are having a go of it...

So what do you think that means for the future of green goods and consumerism?  Does "green" have to get put on hold for a while?

The thing about green consumerism specifically is that it depends on individual consumers.  In tough economic times, a lot of people need to scale back on their purchases.  Since green products usually cost more than non-green products, the reality is that green consumerism is going to take a hit.

One way to combat this is to financially incentivize green products.  For example, giving tax credits for electric vehicles.  A more widespread option is to enact a carbon tax or cap and trade system.  The costs of these policies will get passed on to products with larger carbon footprints - the less green products.

At least it looks like EVs won't have to be put on hold for consumers, there was some concern about whether NEVs or 3-wheeled vehicles qualified for the EV credit, and they didn't, but this is an article that is trying to change that.

Zap is among the companies fighting for an expansion of the credit to include 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles as well as NEVs.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0471367.htm

Hopefully new incentives will come out for the companies trying to do the right thing, even in the consumer products arena including food and household items, then maybe those companies will not have to raise their costs or lower their standards.  I think it is in the government's hand to decide whether or not the green market will stay wide open.  I think the important thing for the consumer to do is to cut corners elsewhere on the budget and continue to do what you can to support local and green companies.  (And sometimes it is even cheaper to do that than to buy from the larger companies anyways.)

Joel Makower wrote an interesting piece on this subject...I definitely recommend checking it out.  It's called Green Consumers' Irrational Exuberance.  Makower calls out some interesting results from various surveys including the following facts:

• Four out of five people say they are still buying green products and services today, even in the midst of a U.S. recession, according to a study commissioned by Green Seal and EnviroMedia Social Marketing and conducted by Opinion Research Corp.
• Despite the dire economy, 34% of American consumers indicate they are more likely to buy environmentally responsible products today, and another 44% indicate their environmental shopping habits have not changed as a result of the economy, while only 8% say they are less likely to buy, according to the 2009 Cone Consumer Environmental Survey.

But he ends with some big questions about the validity of surveys like this...and the trend that green consumers appear to be perhaps exaggerating about their current shopping decisions.

In any case, it's interesting.