London, UK - 08 Sep 2010: Great Britain is risking turning consumers off sustainable living due to the sheer amount of fragmented information available, according to a recent IBM® survey (NYSE:IBM).
An online YouGov poll(1), of over 2,000 consumers revealed that 47 per cent of British adults feel that there is a lot of information available about sustainable living, but that much of this is conflicting. Only 12 per cent believe that advice and information is consistent and seven per cent do not know what a sustainable lifestyle is.
The research comes at the beginning of the nine-day IBM summit as part of Start, an initiative established by HRH The Prince of Wales to promote and celebrate sustainable living. IBM will convene business and industry thought leaders to discuss the next steps that should be taken to enable economic, environmental and societal sustainability.
IBM also found that the business community has room to improve as 50 per cent of the public rate the way organisations convey their sustainability policies as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. Only 5 percent believe companies communicate how they are contributing to sustainable living ‘well’ or ‘very well’.
“It’s clear that most people understand what sustainable living is in principle but the amount of conflicting information is making it difficult to implement practical lifestyle changes,” said Colin Shearer, Worldwide Industry Solutions Leader, IBM.
“Hundreds of business representatives will come together at the IBM summit to discuss what they can do for sustainability and in turn what it can do for the economy. Clear, concise information is key and a starting point is to ensure that it is communicated effectively, helping both consumers and businesses understand how they can make a difference.”
About the IBM summit at Start:
http://twitter.com/smarterplanet
Follow media updates on the summit at: www.ibm.com/press/uk/en/presskit/31823.wss
and at:
http://www.netvibes.com/ibmstartsummit
Notes to Editors
Start is a national initiative by The Prince's Charities to promote and celebrate sustainable living. It aims to demonstrate what a more energy efficient, cleaner and healthier future could look like. During 2010, Start will grow into a vibrant and diverse programme, which will engage people right across the UK. The Start founding partners include: IBM, Addison Lee, Asda, B&Q, BT Group plc, EDF Energy, M&S, Virgin Money, Waitrose and Your water companies. For more information go to: www.startuk.org
The IBM Summit is the business to business component of Start and each day will engage 120 global leaders in business, the public sector and academia to discuss the varying economic, societal and environmental aspects of sustainability. Each of the Summit's nine days has a unique theme including cities, energy, transportation, skills & people, youth, supply chain, finance and analytics. The final day of the vent will combine the work of all days into a discussion on Smarter Business.
For real-time multimedia updates from the IBM Summit at start: http://bit.ly/startconnect
Contact(s) information
Emma Bennett
UK External Relations
+44(0)7976 839109
Emma.Bennett@uk.ibm.com
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1 (1) All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2234 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 10th - 12th August 2010. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+)