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'Green' Eco-Gadgets Are Appealing Yet Confusing, Study Says

by Lee Bains on December 11, 2008 at 11:01 AM



A report issued by the Consumer Electronics Association reveals that green gadgets, while firing public curiosity, are also, largely, poorly understood, the New York Times reports.

According to the study, 89-percent of electronics buyers will consider energy efficiency when purchasing their next TV and 74-percent argue that corporations should take strides in becoming more green.

Many folks' desire for green technology, though, is only complicated by the fact that very few of them understand it. Only 25-percent of the respondents were confident in their understandings of what, exactly, "green" means in regards to consumer electronics. Thirty-eight percent said they were confused, and 51-percent said they didn't entirely believe companies' claims of greenness, anyway.

A lot of this distrust and misunderstanding is due to manufacturers' collective failure to agree on a "green" standard, experts suggest. "There needs to be more consumer education and effective communication on the part of manufacturers and retailers," Parker Brugge, vice president of CEA's environmental affairs, told the Times.

If not moved to agree on a standard in the simple interest of honest integrity, maybe manufacturers will find their motivation elsewhere; while more than 50-percent of consumers distrust companies' alleged greenness, 33-percent of them plan to purchase a green gadget in the next two years. [From: CE.org via The New York Times]

Tags: eco gadgets, EcoGadgets, green, studies, study

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