US consumers gung-ho for cleantech

Green technology spending by American consumers is set to balloon in 2008

Consumers in the US are set to spend $104bn on cleantech products this year, half of it on more efficient vehicles such as hybrids, according to a recent study.

Companies looking to exploit America’s green consumer boom should look to recruit early-adopters who will influence the mass-market, says the report.

The annual US National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS), conducted by the University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business and technology research firm Rockbridge Associates, included cleantech among its 11 categories for the first time.

The survey of over 1,000 US adults found that 71 per cent are interested in green technology but it also revealed a large gap between what they own now and what they would like to own.

Top of the wish-list was greener transport, such as hybrid, biofuel-powered and energy-saving vehicles, which is perhaps surprising to those who consider the US to be a nation obsessed with gas-guzzling pick-up trucks.

Second on the list was solar power for home and water heating.

Other technologies that US consumers are demanding centre on home automation, such as remote control of lighting, heating and air conditioning, as well as home water purification, high-efficiency cooling, high-efficiency heating and, that old green stalwart, energy-saving light-bulbs.

“The key to tapping this huge potential market is targeting and appropriately addressing the green consumer,” said P K Kannan, director of the Center for Excellence in Service. “Our research found that green technology trends are led by a small, yet powerful group of influencers who actively act as evangelists to a secondary group of adopters.”