One in three Irish keen to buy green (17th Sept ’09)

September 23, 2009 at 1:34 pm 1 comment

Just over a third of the Irish public prefer buying eco-friendly goods, according to a new EU survey out this month. 37 per cent of those questioned in this country said the environmental impact of a product was a ‘very important’ factor when deciding on a purchase, just above the EU average.
However energy efficiency is of much less concern for Irish consumers. Only 29 per cent take the energy consumption of a product into account before they buy it – well below the European norm of 40 per cent.
The Eurobarometer survey also shows that an overwhelming majority of Irish people – almost nine out of ten – would be in favour of a label indicating a product’s carbon footprint. This label would display the total amount of greenhouse gases created from the manufacture of a product to its disposal. At present there is no EU-wide carbon footprint label, although EU Ministers have asked the European Commission to study the introduction of such a scheme.