Are consumers ready for Pay as you throw?

The LGA (Local Government Association) recently proposed a ‘pay as you throw’ scheme after a survey found that almost two-thirds supported being charged under the system in return for council tax rebates.

Of course it's not the first time we've heard about plans that focus on personal responsibility. David Miliband announced plans to review pesonal carbon allowances in July 2006.

ERI and Lightspeed research shows people are aware of their carbon consumption even if they don’t refer to it in those terms. Their current focus is on recycling, rather than reusing or reducing. Around 90% people claim to recycle regularly, but fewer people are willing to limit air travel (30%) or use their car less (40%).

The good news, however, is well over 80% believe they personally can make a difference to climate change, but they do want some reward from brands or government for their actions.

The Live Earth full report covers this in more detail on the ERI website. To read more visit our reports section at www.ethicalreputationindex.com.

Time Out rates London's most ethical stores

In association with the Ethical Trading Initiative, this week's Time Out has rated London's most ethical retailers says GreenBiz. Marks and Spencer, Gap and H&M are rated highest.

For me the differences between what shoppers think (ERI) and the results of audits such as this one are very revealing.

According to the ERI, Marks and Spencer's consumer ratings are rising faster than any other retailer measured. Gap, however, are not getting the recognition the Time Out survey suggests they deserve.

Gordon Brown is urged to act on supermarkets using factories that pay workers 4p per hour for up to 80 hours a week says the Scotsman.

Are banks pouncing on green to differentiate their products and make more profit asks The Telegraph? With commendable honesty, Barclaycard, which recently launched Breathe, says "yes" but goes on to say they are also responding to customer demand.

The article also references the Live Earth concerts held on seven continents 07.07.07. Find out whether the concerts did change public perception - of climate change and the companies sponsoring the event - download our free Live Earth summary report, conducted in partnership with Lightspeed Research, at www.ethicalreputationindex.com

Kellogg's has announced new voluntary guidelines for marketing to children.

Tesco have introduced what they call 'naked deliveries', an attempt to reduce the 4 billion bags their grocery delivery service uses every year. I'm trying to imagine what 4 billion bags looks like and how much oil and energy is used to produce them. It's quite hard. But it is a fitting response to consumers concerns which at the moment are focussed on packaging and recycling. Tesco's website today 13.06.07 has information right in the middle of their home page about the scheme.

Dixons CEO calls for an end to standby

The Energy Saving Trust estimates that an average home in UK has 12 appliances on standby at any one time. Dixons CEO John Clare is meeting suppliers today to call for the end to the standby button on electrical goods. Dixons are the latest company to attempt to reduce energy use of its products. Recently Philips announced a 'green tick' logo to denote more energy efficient goods.

Although the Dixons item made the national news, I didn't find any mention of it - or the company's sustainability policies - on Dixons homepage. Companies announcing these types of schemes should support the news with information on their websites if they want to get their message across to both customers and business contacts.

As the Carbon Trust's work shows, there is pressure on the airline industry to react to consumer and legislative pressures. The reaction of the airline industry varies widely, but regional carrier flybe has launched a scheme to alert customers to carbon offsetting. Using a traffic light system the airline aims to help customers decide whether to offset the carbon or not.

Morrisons flags recyclable levels, Sainsbury's focus on sourcing

Hot on the heels of the Carbon Trust campaign comes announcements from two supermarkets. The first from Morrisons is a scheme launched to help customers identify which goods can be recycled.

Our Ethical Reputation Index research shows a lot of people are confused about their role reducing waste and energy - so this scheme should be welcome news to consumers. Two-thirds of people surveyed on the ERI says that they no longer see recycled products as cheaper or inferior alternatives.

And Sainsbury's have announced a scheme to highlight provenance and British sourcing of food.

Meanwhile, Asda are about to launch a new campaign to highlight local sourcing of their milk, reports Brand Republic.

Food quality and sourcing is a big issue for shoppers. Our ERI research shows a quarter of UK's supermarket shoppers are interested in local sourcing . However they're even more concerned about packaging - nearly half are trying to avoid too much packaging when they go shopping.

Carbon Trust new campaign to help business

The Carbon Trust has launched a campaign to persuade business to do find more ways of reducing carbon output. News of the story is featured here.

Looking for a picture of the Carbon Trust I came across this instead - a diagram showing the market value at risk if sectors do not act to reduce carbon emissions. A difficult thing to calculate I'd imagine, but the relative positions seem pretty logical with aviation and energy most exposed.

General Electric announced today that 'green' sales have doubled in the past two years to $12 billion. At the same time, overall sales at GE grew by just 20%. General Electric are broadcasting a press conference live today.

General Electric and BP have both teamed up with ivillage to launch a new Web channel "to show women how easy it is to go green."

Recently NewsCorp, IBM and Citigroup, have announced plans to invest billions of dollars in alternative energy, energy efficiency and carbon emission trading.

Yahoo! has launched a 'go green' initiative in the US. How will it affect consumers views of the company?

Tesco's shareholders have forced ethical issues onto the public agenda. Several newspapers have picked up on this including the Scotsman business pages. The comments below the article are interesting. Not only do they show that readers are thinking about these issues, but digital and social media is allowing them to participate in a debate. It means companies are becoming more open to public inspection and that impacts on their ethical profile.

Technology catches up

Environmental concerns have mainly focussed on the food and fashion industries, then transport. Now technology companies are coming under scrutiny. After we saw Greenpeace slam Apple, Steve Jobs announced new measures to green Apple. Now Philips have launched a new green tick to help guide consumers to more environmentally friendly products.

Lime 'green living with a twist'

Nice idea at Lime 'green living with a twist' to pull together 'eco' sites and blogs to provide comms opportunities.

Marketing Green

I just stumbled across this blog called Marketing Green and thought it was great especially like the interview with Toyota about priuschat.com, very inspiring. Then I saw it was written by David Wigder at Digitas and then I realised why. They are a very interesting company - and I'm sure David is a very interesting person. So I'm going to take a closer look at this blog and read a few more articles.

But that raises a point - which is bothering me right now - how do other people find the time to keep up to date with all their reading? I've just spent 2.5 hours on a Sunday evening reading items related to corporate responsibility, updating my del.icio.us tags and reading all the stuff I should be posting on this blog. It's 23.04 and I've not spoken more than 10 words to my partner all night - he even suggested a web conference tomorrow evening - he's not travelling or anything he was going to do it from another room in our house! (in case anyone doubts our sanity, this was a joke and he has got a new pc with a webcam today so wanted to try it out!)

My take on this is that I must be slow else how do other bloggers manage to post so prolifically. Mind you I did do some other domestic stuff today - maybe real life and any kind of second life just don't mix?

Anyway, nice blog David Wigder and I look forward to reading more soon.

L'Oreal and Body Shop

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2053116,00.html

Green pledge

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1626727.ece

How people shop for clothes and shoes...

... this is a bit new for me, advertising what I'm working on in this 'blog. Up until now I've just noted things that have caught my eye in the press. But I'm planning a project with a few like- minded people and so I thought I'd plant a seed and see what grows...

So right now there are 4 of us and we are all interested in how 'green' issues are affecting shoppers on the high street. I did an interview for the BBC last year, but that looked mainly at younger shoppers, cheaper clothes and so-called 'fast fashion'.

Our group is interested in a wider range of shoppers to see which issues are registering with them, if it is affecting buying behaviour and how this is changing perceptions of brands.

We're planning a meet up next week to discuss how we'll run an ethnographic study of shoppers (who've agreed to take part!) and so if it sounds interesting, drop me a line and maybe we can work together or come and present the results to you and/or your company.

Sexy green car show

The Sexy Green Car Show at Eden Project starts today. It's interesting to see how the motor manufacturers and trade bodies are going to respond to consumer pressure and/or legislation.