At the heart of the adoption curve for clean energy, electric transportation, and sustainability more generally is consumer behavior. If consumers don’t vote in favor of green products with their wallets, the world will remain mired in dirty and abusive practices until the pain associated with that reaches a point that we (more…)

One of the key concerns with the growth of electric vehicles is whether the United States electric grid will be able to manage the growth of vehicles plugged in. This is particularly a concern in areas that have experienced rolling brown and black outs during summer months when the air conditioning is cranking on high. Add to this, potential fresh concerns over nuclear power (more…)

When people learn the facts about energy efficiency and are aware of critical energy issues, such as rising costs, dependence on foreign oil, increasing greenhouse gases and the like, they will change their energy behaviors to help save money and the earth. Sound right? Well, as it turns out it isn’t, and according to Social Psychologist Wesley Schultz, education and awareness (more…)

The consumer face of the Smart Grid looks like you and me.  It is tall and short, conservative and liberal, lazy and driven.  In short, it is everyone, which means that it can be both random and ordered depending on changing conditions, geographic realities, and discordant behavioral patterns.

Capitalizing on Smart Grid opportunities in the residential consumer market means finding order and predictability across a wide range of variables: different ecosystems, temperature variation, number of people living under one roof, behavioral patterns, etc.  Currently, data is measured home-to-home, which means that fine-grained details under the roof are usually unaccounted for.

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A greater percentage of consumers are viewing leading brands as being socially responsible, according to preliminary numbers from a consumer survey.

The SHIFT Report, an annual survey of 5,000 people from the North American general population by sustainability marketing consultancy Conscientious Innovation studies attitudes towards sustainability and leading brands.

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Mob mentality is being used to convince businesses to combat global warming. How? Through Carrotmob, a “reverse boycott” phenomenon taking hold worldwide.

According to their Web site, Carrotmob is “a network of consumers who buy products in order to reward businesses who are being socially responsible.” It uses consumer buying power as leverage to convince businesses to act more responsibly and to improve the way their business operates in relation to environmental impacts.

A good example is their first ever action, which happened in San Francisco (see the video below). Founder Brent Schulkin visited bottle stores in his neighborhood and asked them to pledge a certain amount of their daily takings to “greening” their business.
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