We recently came across a very interesting piece of consumer research: the Greendex courtesy of National Geographic Online.

While most research looking at various countries’ impact on the environment is measured by the actions taken by the governments, the Greendex is a consumer based survey that ranks countries’ envirohuman impact based on the individual consumers’ green-related habits, consumption, and sentiments.

Basically, this gets at the heart of the green movement by finding out what people are actually doing and how their personal decisions towards sustainability compare to that of others around the world. So how do you stack up? Where does your country rank and what can we take away from the the survey?

First, some results and takeaways according to the site:

The findings show that consumers in Brazil and India tie for the highest Greendex score for environmentally sustainable consumption at 60 points each. They are followed by consumers in China (56.1), Mexico (54.3), Hungary (53.2) and Russia (52.4). Among consumers in wealthy countries, those in Great Britain, Germany and Australia each have a Greendex score of 50.2, those in Spain register a score of 50.0 and Japanese respondents 49.1. U.S. consumers have the lowest Greendex score at 44.9. The other lowest-scoring consumers are Canadians with 48.5 and the French with 48.7.

Now, obviously there are some trends here. While some developed countries score considerably better than others, it’s clear that developed countries score considerably worse than less developed ones. The study points out some possible reasons for this:

People in developing countries are more likely to:

• Live in smaller residences
• Prefer green products and own relatively few appliances or expensive electronic devices
• Walk, cycle, or use public transportation, and choose to live close to their most common destination

By contrast, consumers in developed countries, who have more environmentally friendly options to choose from, often don’t make those choices.

• They have larger homes and are more likely to have air-conditioning.
• They generally own more cars, drive alone most frequently and use public transport infrequently.
• They are least likely to buy environmentally friendly products and to avoid environmentally unfriendly products.
• U.S. consumers scored worse than those in any other country, developing or developed, on housing, transportation and goods. They are by far the least likely to use public transportation, to walk or bike to their destinations or to eat locally grown foods. They have among the largest average residence size in the survey. Only 15 percent say they minimize their use of fresh water.

So much of this seems pretty intuitive. Countries that are able to consume more seem to be much more likely to be part of the problem right now than the solution. But ultimately this is the price of success as a highly developed and wealthy country, whether the US, Canada, etc. Fortunately, the Green movement has been catching hold and hopefully, within a few years and new iterations of this study, countries like the US will have moved closer to their developed, but more earth-friendly counterparts.

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