Part of being an effective environmental marketing agency is conducting ongoing, meaningful, primary research. Once a year TerraChoice surveys a wide sample of procurement professionals for an EcoMarkets report to determine the state of green purchasing and analyze year-over-year trends. The full EcoMarkets 2008 report is due out in June, but a few of the conclusions are available now. Here’s some of what TerraChoice found out in 2008:

• 31% of respondents indicated that at least 40% of spending is ‘green’ influenced
• 25% of organizations surveyed have formal green purchasing policies - up from 22% in 2007
• 72% of purchasers surveyed feel that ecolabels help purchasing decisions
• The single biggest factor that respondents said would facilitate more green purchasing is more training and education on how to buy eco-friendly products and services

This year’s EcoMarkets study surveyed 336 procurement professionals, with roughly half located in the US and half located in Canada. Stay tuned for the full report, which will appear on the Responsible Purchasing site. In the meantime, TerraChoice and the Responsible Purchasing Network hosted a webcast on May 28th with more of the study results discussed. A webcast video is available.

If you’re a procurement professional interested in participating in future studies, please contact the TerraChoice EcoLogo Procurement Think Tank at thinktank@ecologo.org.

Posted by Mari in Environmental standards, Green business, Green products, Marketing