Corporate awakening

At a recent Eco-Tuesday event I heard an attorney from Morrison Foerster talk about how VCs can be seen "following the money" in clean tech investing. I'm sure she's right, because that's essentially the theme for the growth of the entire green movement. Now that "green" and "sustainability" are understood by a large percentage of consumers, and of course with this awakening comes concern and at least some interest in reacting positively to preserve the planet, consumer-facing companies have no choice but to follow the money.

The negative perception that many had of "environmentalists" is suddenly unimportant. The correlation between concern for the health of our planet and ultra-liberalism has eroded. So corporate America can embrace this new buying segment - recent estimates put the value of the LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability) segment at $200 billion - with little downside. More to the point, increasingly, corporate America can't afford to ignore this growing segment. By all accounts the folks buying hybrids and organic foods are upper-middle class, well-educated, active young adults and families. There are a few companies who have grown up focused on appealing to the LOHAS segment when it was still small; but now that it's going mainstream we will see virtually all companies rush to figure out their strategy for capturing their share of the LOHAS pie.

Kent
www.ecounit.com