Measure Your Green-ness

National Geographic and GlobeScan have teamed up for a research project entitled “Greendex,” a tool to measure how green 14 countries are in comparison to each other. Hasn’t this been done already? Well, Greendex is the first to look at the consumption behaviors of individual consumers, rather than just the countries, as a whole.

Researchers looked at behaviors such as using cold water for laundry and repairing household things rather than replacing them, but also took into account more uncontrollable factors like climate, availability of public transportation, and access to green products.

Not surprisingly, those of us in developed countries have the most green choices right in front of us, but often do not choose them. India and Brazil tied with a Greendex score of 60, while the United States had the lowest score of 44.9. Again, probably not too surprising. Our houses are the biggest, our use of public transportation minimal, and even though “eating local” seems to have caught on in some areas, it has yet to become a national trend.

Additionally, those in developing countries report that they “feel more responsible for environmental problems” as opposed to their developed country counterpart who less frequently express such a sentiment. Can you see this sentiment changing? [Nationalgeographic.com]