| How Do Brits Like to Be Green? | |
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The findings presented below are the first from a new annual household survey in Britain named Understanding Society. The environmental topics are one subset of the whole survey, which also examines the “working lives, relationships, health, finances, neighbourhoods, education, transport and more” of Brits. What are the main findings thus far? Initial findings indicate a strong preference for environmental actions costing the least money and requiring the least effort, not necessarily the most important for protecting the environment, “despite the fact that 59 per cent of people think that if things continue on their current course we will soon experience a major environmental disaster.” Some main findings show that 70% of households separate their trash in order to recycle some of it, but only 2% buy energy on a green tariff. Presenting some of the other initial findings, ESRC states: “Preliminary results from 1500 respondents show that those who own their own home are more likely to separate their rubbish (83 per cent) than those in rented accommodation (59 per cent), whilst less than one in a hundred households have solar water heating (0.5 per cent) or solar energy panels (0.5 per cent). Initial findings also show that switching off the lights in unused rooms (82 per cent) and not leaving the television on standby (67 per cent) are significantly more popular than taking fewer flights (16 per cent), car sharing (15 per cent) and not buying items because they have too much packaging (8 per cent).” Currently, Brits’ favorite green behaviors (or behaviours) are: * Switching off lights in unused room - 82% These are the first findings from this initial study, but more will be published at a later date as well. A key advantage of this study, overall, is the longitudinal nature of it — we will be able to see changes in Brits’ beliefs and behaviors over the course of time. As Professor Nick Buck of the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) says: “One of the unique features of Understanding Society is that we speak to the same people each year, which means we can see how people’s behaviours and attitudes change over time. The information we collect about how ‘green’ people are will play a key role in informing the ongoing debate about environmental issues.” The Chasm Between Awareness and Action This is the big question of our time… It seems that people are beginning to move in this direction, but maybe it’s time for the next big steps (rather than all of the little ones) — more people using clean, renewable energy; more people biking or using mass transit; more people switching over to vegetarianism. These are big steps for many people. But as people seem to be aware, we are facing big environmental challenges that require such behavior changes. It will be interesting to see how attitudes and behaviors change in Britain (and all over the world) in the coming years. It will be something I think all generations will look back on. Hopefully, with admiration. Source - GO Media - Written by Zachary Shahan - Image Credit: Anirudh Koul via flickr under a Creative Commons license
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How do Brits like to be green, and what green behaviors do they still avoid?
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