2009, October, November, December

"Give them incentive and they will follow" says Ben McNeil, writing recently in The Age newspaper. 

He highlighted the redirection of "smart money" into 'clean tech' innovation as progressive firms look to gain future advantage in the emerging low carbon ecoomy. Citing a UN finance report, the past year was the "first in which new investment in clean technology (solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels) outstripped the old fossil-fuel economy (coal, gas) - by $US40 billion ($A43 billion)".

The article indicates that in the main, entrepreneurs and businesses will only act on sustainability opportunities when there is a clear financial incentive to do so. In the context of the article, the incentive is the potential price disadvantage of carbon costs, based on intensity of use as an input in the future.

But what about consumers? 

In an extract of his speech titled, "Victoria's Challenge, go green but stay in the black" presented at the 2009 VECCI summit at Parliament House, Melbourne, ceo of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Wayne Kayler-Thomson, posed the following question:

 "...beyond the state-wide implications of the need to move to greater use of renewable energy sources, how do we adapt to the need to incorporate environmental awareness at an individual and organisational level?"

Along with other environmental and sustainability terms, most Australians have heard the words but don't 'get it'. Mobium Group interviews and Living LOHAS surveys of Australians over the past three years have shown that consistently, over 85% of consumers find environmental issues complex and would like clearer information. When it comes to carbon trading, they’ve heard the words and recognise the term, but around 30% can’t provide a definition and half cannot offer an explanation of the impact on their own lives. Of those who can, the most common response is, ‘Prices will rise!’.

BandT magazine, Australia's magazine for the marketing, advertising, media and PR industry, compiled the '50 Things You Need to Know about Being Green' list as part of its 'Green Issue' (October 16, 2009).

Mobium's Living LOHAS^© research featured in 6 of the 'Top 50', and was described as the 'Gold Standard' for insights about the attitudes of Australian consumers when it comes to the environment and sustainability.

The Living LOHAS^© 3 analysis phase is complete and report write-up is underway.

This year, the team has completely re-written the report from the ground up, and has taken a 3 year perspective, comparing and contrasting Australian consumers' perceptions of health, wellbeing and sustainability issues and impacts on their lives since 2007.