Consumer Trends in Green Living

Posted on April 26th, 2009 by Bruce

Consumer Trends in Green Living

Just returned from the Green Living show in Toronto and two strong trends are evident.

Organic Foods

Organic foods are going mainstream. A huge selection of organic products are now available. What is different from the past however, is the distribution channel – mainstream grocery chains. Product quality remains high and the price differential is narrowing. With easy access to organic products at your local grocery store, we will see a huge increase in demand. Will 2009-2010 be the year organics finally break-out?

Electric Vehicles

The Toronto Green Living show contained more than the standard display of hybrid vehicles. This year electric bikes were the “next big thing”. From small motorized bikes and scooters, to full fledge street bikes and motocross bikes. Even the riding garden tractor was into fully electric. Vehicle conversion systems were also on display. The end of 2009 will see the initial roll-out of “production” plug-in electric vehicles in North America. By the end of 2010 we should have several models and manufacturers to choose from. Electric plug-in vehicles can not get here soon enough as far as I am concerned.

What was lacking this year?LED lights! At last year’s show we saw a significant decrease in LED pricing. This year I could find only two vendors with LED lights and the selection was smaller and the pricing had generally increased.

Overall, this was another good show. More solar thermal systems on display this year and with the increase in government incentives these almost become free. Not as much solar photovoltaic systems as I would expect, but once again the Ontario government has a role here, as they are in the middle of rolling out new rules and pricing.

GreenTerraFirma will be attending again next year…

GreenTerraFirma

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