I am really not (quite) that cynical, but I have to say that having worked for a few years at Energy Circle, where we sold home energy efficiency products to consumers, and provided software services to home energy efficiency contractors I will say that I had at least some actual access to how people respond. Add to writing this blog since 2005 and I have a pretty clear picture of how people respond.

I definitely agree with you that most people do care about the environment. I don’t think I was making the point that people don’t care, just that all indications are that this isn’t the only thing they care about, and when asked to part with money in order to do something abstract like “help the environment” it’s a long sell indeed.

Since I wrote the post, I read the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” which describes in detail the stuff I mentioned at the end about what behavioral economics is about. Concepts of “rational actors” and stuff I learned in college Economics have been largely debunked.

The important point (and why my cynicism is probably not warranted) is that we’re all like this — our brains are wired to make “incorrect” decisions about certain kinds of things. We can’t help it, really.

So I guess I just replaced cynicism with hopelessness.

Have a great day!! :-)

Nah, we’ll figure it out the hard way, as always.

Your point on people being sold a bill of goods is a right — the original CFL rollout was so badly done: poor quality of light, terrible construction just to get the prices down. Then everyone hated them.

Another comment made by the company CEO I quoted was “people don’t want LED’s that look light night-lights”, and the whole brightness issue is another opportunity for the lighting industry to screw up.

But these issues aside, there really is some science as to why people don’t go for ROI. here a link to just one story explaining irrational behaviors in behavioral economics.

I think some of the reasons ROI doesn’t resonate w/ consumers is that they’re used to being sold a bill of goods. “CFL bulbs will last 20 years and save you $150!” – and then the cheap-ass bulb they bought burns out in a year, and they chuck it in the trash and vow never to do THAT again… and then there are the other renewable energy scams that confuse the public, and outlandish claims of reduced-footprint iPhone chargers, and promises that window replacement will save you thousands … it goes on and on. There ARE good strategic moves out there for consumers, but I’m afraid the waters are really muddied with distrust and skepticism.

But businesses grokking this stuff is good news; it’ll keep the market going, and some of it will trickle down (though as you say – fast enough?). And then there are the Nests of the world trying to put sexy on top of efficient, hopefully there will be more of that.