“Consumerism is all about behavior, and while in an ideal world we would consume less, we need to work toward that by consuming better,” says Clare Harris.

Should you buy ‘green’ products because they make a difference or because they’re better?
It’s a question everyone shopper must have asked themselves at some time while weighing up the choice between “green”, and non-”green” options.
Faced with the scale of the planet’s environmental crisis — climate change, pollution, species extinction — what possible difference can the choices we make at the mall produce? The answer is a lot, according to Clare Harris, editor of New Consumer magazine. “The choices we make as individuals are important, if only because I think humans work by example,” she says. “What one person does, another will follow, and then we begin to see the numbers that will make a real difference.”
When the tipping point toward green shopping behavior is reached, when enough people change their behavior, then collectively we will make a difference. “There’s always a danger that if people think too hard about the issue then they may think ‘what’s the point, I can’t make any difference,’” says Harris. “But together we can, and I think and hope buying green will` just become the default option for people. Just what they do.”

Source: www.cnn.com, June 16, 2008