• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 4, 2011

A national Capstrat-Public Policy Polling survey found that 59% of consumers consider products' environmental sustainability to be very important in their buying decisions. And 56% noted they would pay "a little" to "significantly" more for a product that was environmentally friendly.

Yet 47% of respondents said sustainability and environmental friendliness are "rarely" or "never" mentioned in their employers' communications. Only 20% of respondents said sustainability was "frequently" mentioned.

Environmentally Friendly and Sustainable
	2009	2010	Change
I am willing to pay "a little" or "significantly" more for a product that is environmentally friendly	54%	56%	+2%
Sustainability is "rarely" or "never" mentioned in employer communications	46%	47%	+1%
Source: Capstrat, December 2010

These survey results are in line with a 2009 Capstrat poll in which 54% of respondents cited sustainability as "very important" in their buying decisions and fifty-nine% said they would pay "a little" to "significantly" more for a product that was environmentally friendly. In that poll, 46% of respondents said sustainability was "rarely" or "never" mentioned in their companies' communications.

Capstrat CEO Ken Eudy says, "... companies with a genuine commitment to the environment are missing a huge opportunity to promote this orientation... even with their own employees... communicate what they are doing to protect the environment... "

Other notable findings include:

• Millennials more likely to pay for green... 19% of Millennials are willing to pay "significantly more" for a green product, more than any other age cohort (results were 4% for ages 30-45, 7% for ages 46-65 and 5% among those older than 65
• Men less likely to pay for green...   52% of men say they will pay "no more" for a green product, compared to 32% of women.
• Democrats twice as green...   Environmental friendliness is more important to Democrat's.  11% of respondents identifying themselves as Democrats called sustainability the most important factor in purchasing decisions compared to only 4% of Republicans

The polling industry is evolving into automated telephone surveys (IVR) and internet polling. An analysis by the Wall Street Journal of swing state polls in the 2008 presidential campaign concluded that Public Policy Polling was among the two most accurate survey firms, reports the analysis.

To view complete survey results (PDF), visit www.PublicPolicyPolling.com, or the original release here.