63% of Canadian homeowners & 70% of American homeowners understood benefits of green building products, but thought green building products was usually just marketing, though 60% of Canadians surveyed were willing to pay more upfront for green products compared to 56% for Americans.
Posted by envirostats on Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Canadian survey comprised of a representative randomly selected sample of 1,285 adult homeowners was interviewed online. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within +/-2.7%, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population been polled. The Canadian article came out on Sep 6 2007.
The American survey comprised of a representative randomly selected sample of 1,272 adult homeowners was interviewed online. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within +/-2.7%, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult population been polled. The American article came out Sep 10 2007.
Many statistics were obtained from these two nearly identical surveys done at about the same time, which is the way these surveys should be done for appropriate and fair comparisons. Unfortunately, the stories presenting them were not all that identical in summary so be careful reading. I tried to put them on the same terms here.
The basic gist of these surveys seem to be that:
- Canadian and American homeowners were not too different on opinions of green building products.
- There was a lot of skepticism, healthy or not because it isn’t known what the real percentage of green building products is on the market of those touting green features. There definitely are some areas of building materials badly needing regulations to be called “green”, though, like the organic food sector does.
- All North American homeowners could use some education on the issue, though, as they self-admitted.
- Those knowledgeable about environmental issues understood the green product claims better and were less cynical than the rest of the population about a building product’s green claims. [Envirostats author]
- 31% of Canadian homeowners admit not knowing much about environmental issues. No value was given for American homeowners, though it should be close to the same given responses to other similar questions.
- Among those stating they were knowledgeable on environmental issues, 56% of Canadians believed green building materials were usually just a marketing tactic, compared to 63% for the whole and what should be higher for those who don’t know much about environmental issues. The American values were 58% believing green building materials was just marketing, compared to 70% overall for the population and higher for the unknowledgeable group.
- 69% of Canadians knowledgeable on environmental issues were willing to pay more for green building materials whereas only 60% of the total were, and less among those not knowledgeable. 64% of knowledgeable Americans were willing to do the same, compared to just 56% of the general population and less among those not knowledgeable.
- The American poll showed 75% of men thought green building materials were usually just marketing compared to 65% women and only 51% of men were willing to pay more for green building materials compared to 61% for women.
Keep in mind the margins of error being under 3%.
- Ipsos-Reid American poll, Sep 5 2007
- Canadian vs American poll via CNW Group, Sep 6 2007
- American poll via Icynene on Design Building Network (no original page at Icynene site), Sep 10 2007
