At Haddock Research, we have just released
Interim Highlights from our Environmental Choice 2008 study. We see low carbon innovation being at the heart of the process of reaching a low carbon world, and the text below comes from the document.
You can take a look at the results, from a downloadable 16-page PDF, available by going to -
http://www.haddock-research.com/EC2008_interim_highlights
Supporting low carbon innovation
In a world of finite ecological boundaries and rapidly growing human-induced impacts, many people are trying to work out the best ways to create a new, sustainable, low carbon world. These people include journalists, think tank analysts, government leaders, lobbyists, engineers, environmentalists, economists, scientists, designers, entrepreneurs and others - and a key focus is to harness the power of the market to develop low carbon innovations.
Yet innovations can look very different from the solutions that the public can readily imagine.
One hundred years ago, New York City had a problem. The city had to contend with disease and pollution caused by the ’40 dead horses, 2.5 million pounds of manure and 60,000 gallons of urine’ left on the streets each day (Source: ‘The End of Energy Obesity’, Peter Tertzakian (2009), p.30).
In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model T Ford, the first mass-market internal combustion car, and helped transform society. Somewhat incidentally, this innovation also solved the environmental problems of horse transportation in New York City!
Over time, cars have impaired local air quality and contributed to climate change. The current mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, has made an attempt to address this by requiring all taxis to be hybrids by 2012. But could Henry Ford’s internal combustion powered car be replaced as much by telecommunications and online networking tools as by using more fuel-efficient cars? Maybe the next UN climate change conference in New York could be attended by some delegates via telepresence rather than in-person?
For this to happen, we need innovators.
Innovators need to understand how they can justify investments in the low carbon sector – either in creating something completely new or in re-engineering something which exists already. And innovators can be fooled by the practical questions that potential customers tend to ask, rather than understand the underlying desires which get these customers thinking about their innovation in the first place.
The key theme from this research is that people who are concerned about climate change have different desires, and behaviour, from those who do not.
From all walks of life, in Canada, England and the USA, there are many members of the public who are deeply concerned about climate change – a group we have called Climate Citizens. Compared to others, this group tend to act in a more low carbon way, are more interested in low carbon products, and are more supportive of low carbon policies. They have a deep, though not uncritical, unmet need for products that could support a low carbon lifestyle.
This evidence suggests that there is significant business opportunity, across virtually all consumer sectors, for innovations which help tackle climate change.
But society is complex! Sometimes there are a number of factors which, consciously or unconsciously, influence people’s actions and desires – and concern about climate change is just one factor.
One question we get asked, in the words of someone who registered at our website, is to understand ‘Whether or not there is any tangible business value to greening your brand’.
Whilst the Environmental Choices survey demonstrates the appeal of low carbon brands to Climate Citizens, it does not necessarily follow that ‘being green’ is a core element of a low carbon brand’s positioning. Each brand should strive for differentiation, including against competitors which are also low carbon. And people usually also need complimentary, rational hooks before making a commitment to buy. One other consideration is that some Sceptics & Uninvolved are positively antagonistic to the notion of climate change, and are annoyed, bored and/or even angry when the subject is mentioned – so communications sensitivity may be required!
Henry Ford famously remarked that ‘If I asked the public what they wanted they would have said faster horses’.
A mistaken inference from this statement is that ‘conducting market research is a waste of time since people don’t know what they want’. The real lesson is that market research needs to be sensitive to people’s needs (in Ford’s case, to get around faster) and emotional desires, in order to guide innovations that people will value, at a price they can afford.
Overall, our Environmental Choices study is designed to help understand these issues, and this document highlights some key, interim findings. Our hope is that it inspires and guides people to develop innovations which are (also) low carbon.
