Just when you thought that inflation would drive consumers away from more expensive green products, the silver lining appears. The Wall Street Journal, in an in depth article, Green Products Gain From New Price Equation on the subject, reports that green products and those with greener packaging may turn out to be the big winner as energy prices spiral out of control.
Consumers typically have paid a premium for environmentally friendly products. But with soaring energy prices pushing up the price of mainstream goods, green products are becoming just as — or even more — affordable these days.
Because eco friendly companies tend to use fewer fossil fuels in production and tend to focus on energy saving techniques, as the price of oil rises, it impacts green companies less. Eco friendly products made from natural materials, rather than plastic, a petroleum derivative, are impacted less by rising material costs. The same applies for packaging costs. Avoiding the plastic wrapper turns out to have been a smart economic move.
Of course eco friendly companies are still impacted by the rise in shipping costs, but the value added equation for green products is starting to look pretty positive. Consumers faced with a slight up charge rather than a large one for a better or more eco friendly products will tend to bite the bullet and spend the money.
This confluence of factors should drive sustainable business practices into the mainstream and more and more companies see the economic benefits of going green. A positive for the green movement and a benefit for established ecopreneurs.
We try to leverage situations like this to grow into new markets,” says Jeff Mendelsohn, founder and chief executive officer of New Leaf Paper LLC, a maker of recycled paper. “Where there’s instability in prices, buyers tend to be more open to new sourcing, and that’s a general market strategy, not just green.”
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Photo Credit:Paparutzi at Flickr Under Creative Commons License
