A more sustainable economy requires behavioral change, but changing people’s behavior is hard, so why not look for sustainability opportunities where behavior is already changing – when people move.
That’s the message from Ted Stimpson, CEO of Imagitas. Imagitas runs the change of address business for the US Postal Service and theiir market research on the 46 million people who move each year shows that people who move are very receptive to spending on sustainability.
86% of the movers consider themselves green – and half of those want to be more green. Their wallets – and sometimes their walls – are already open. At the same time, there may be a relatively short window of high opportunity. Consider this – according to Imagitas’ research, a consumer is 10 times more likely to buy a dryer within the first 4 weeks of moving than at any other time, but 20% less likely in the following four weeks.
Such behavior makes sense – as does piggybacking on it to grow the market for sustainability products and services. Imagitas’ research is focused specifically on people who are moving, and is of course proprietary, used to develop and maintain their relationship with clients and prospects. Perhaps, though, the company will consider sharing some of their results more widely, because the examples they cite indicate a broader-based interest in sustainability spending than most companies credit. Getting that out would be good for Imigitas’ business and the business of sustainability.
Ted Stimpson spoke at the MassHighTech Cleantecb Forum in Boston on April 29, 2010.