Vermonters practice what we preach!

Here is an article that gives us yet another reason to be proud...We are now recognized as "The Greenest State." Sounds like other places talk about it, but Vermonters are more likely to follow through in practice.

Burlington Free Press:
Burlington is used to sitting at the top of lists touting the country’s healthiest and most livable cities. Now Vermont can join it’s largest city as a list-topper.
• Related story: Earth Day events in Vermont
In a recent poll conducted by Pitney Bowes Business Insight and Earthsense, an applied marketing company, Vermont was ranked the “greenest” state in the country in terms of citizens most likely to exhibit green behavior. This result most likely comes as no surprise to Vermonters, who pride themselves on their environmentally friendliness. But, hey, it’s nice to be recognized — and just in time for Earth Day.


The Eco-Insights poll was designed in 2007 to understand the mindset of the green consumer, said chief research officer and co-founder of Earthsense, Amy Hebard. The main goal of the poll was to determine whether green consumer behavior matched their attitudes. It’s one thing to believe that climate change is a legitimate problem caused by carbon emissions; it’s quite another to buy non-toxic cleaning products, dry clothes on a clothesline and compost faithfully.Hebard said her group wanted to know whether consumer behavior followed attitudinal statements about green living. They polled 30,000 people in 2008 and asked them a battery of questions to gauge whether they felt global warning was a human-caused problem, whether they felt guilty for not doing more for the environment and whether they cared where their food came from, among other indicators.

The results of the online survey found Vermonters were far more likely than people in other states to live their beliefs. Not only do Vermonters believe in the value of living green, but they also invest the time and money to make that possible, Hebard said.Hebard said Vermonters were more likely to boycott companies that had a negative environmental reputation and more likely to “buycott,” or support companies that had a positive environmental reputation. The survey found that Vermont was more of an “activist state” than others, meaning that people actively pursue a green lifestyle.


Joining Vermont at the top of the green poll were Alaska, New Mexico, Oregon and Massachusetts. States like Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and South Carolina received the lowest marks.People in the leading states were more likely to turn off the lights when they left a room, buy products made of recycled materials, recycle regularly, turn down the thermostat and limit their use of water in the home. The poll also found, not surprisingly, that much of the green behavior was linked to politics. One of the best indicators of green behavior is political affiliation, Hebard said.


Much of the rest of the country has a ways to go before they catch up to Vermont in terms of basic green practices like recycling, but Hebard said she thinks as consumer companies move in that direction, so too will the public.“The rest of the country can get there. They just need access and education,” Hebard said.
Contact Lauren Ober at 660-1868 or lober@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com