Lesson Five

Lesson Five

How Green Is Your Market?

贵国的市场有多绿色？

(The Economist, Jan., 2000)

High environmental standards are a luxury that poor countries cannot afford————or so the orthodoxy has it . But a forthcoming report on global public opinion by Environics International, a Canadian firm, challenges that idea. It suggests that some poor-country consumers might even be greener than rich-country ones.

要求高的环境要求是一个贫穷国家无法承担的奢侈品，或者说这是一个无可争议的事实。但在一份由加拿大公司，国际环境组织即将发布的环球一件的报告中却对这个理论进行挑战。它提出某些贫穷国家比富有国家有更绿色的环境。

With the help of pollsters such as Britain's MORI and India's ORG-MARG, Environics has quizzed nearly 30,000 people in 27 countries, both rich and poor. Although concern about global issues, such as climate change, is waning, there is an upsurge in worries about local air-and water-pollution. This is most pronounced in poor countries, where more than half of respondents believe that their health has been harmed a great deal by pollution; in rich countries, the share is only about a fifth.

英国的国际市场公司以及印度的ORG-MARG公司测试了27个国家的30000人，包括贫穷的还有富裕的国家。尽管其中有很多是关心环球的环境问题的，例如气候的恶化，，但对当地空气和水污染问题逐渐关注的趋势。这个问题在那些认为其国民健康已被污染恶化的贫穷国家来说，这最为显著。

This outrage over local pollution is fuelling what Doug Miller, head of Environics, calls“latent activism”consumers in developing countries . When asked if they were willing to pay a 10 % premium for a greener cleaning product, two-thirds of respondents in Venezuela and half of those in China, India and Egypt agreed strongly; in Britain, France and Japan, barely a fifth thought it worth the while .

这个关于当地污染的愤慨加速了环境学领军学者，苗立德关于在发展中国家内有“潜在的激进主义”的学说。在问及这些国家是否会愿意花10%的额外花费去发展一个更洁净的产品时，在委内瑞拉的有2/3和在中国、印度和埃及有一半的受访者都表示强烈的赞同，但在巴西，法国，及日本仅有接近1/5的人认为这是值得的。

Of course, though consumers may tell pollsters they will pay a premium, getting them to do so at the shop may be trickier .Body Shop, a British firm known for its ecologically sensitive beauty products, and Oriental Princess, a Thai imitator, have used green strategies in the Thai market with mixed success . A recent academic study concludes that, although the firms have created favourable attitudes and enjoy high brand loyalty, customers still consider non-green attributes more important in making their purchase decisions.

当然，尽管消费者会告诉投票的人说他们会支付这个额外花费，并让他们在商店内做的更有技巧性。一个以其生态环保敏感性产品著称的英国公司美体工坊，以及泰国的类似企业，东方公主公司都在泰国市场使用绿色策论而成败各半。在最近的一份学术报告中得出以下结论，尽管有的公司创造了优惠的态度并享有极高的产品忠诚度，客人仍会在购买决定的考虑中将非绿色的因素放在更重要的位置。

Still, big firms hoping to make inroads into developing markets would be foolish to dismiss greenery altogether .Already, to the surprise of some customers, music stores in Mumbai have started to reduce or replace the plastic packaging on compact discs “.When I asked why,”says one pleased customer,“the owner replied that we all have to do our part for the earth .”

And governments, as well as businesses, are reacting to pressure from people. Lanzhou, in western China, was recently named the world's most polluted metropolis, thanks to decades of coal-burning. This week, China's government revealed that it will rush to build an expensive new pipeline from the neither remote north-west to replace coal with cleaner-burning natural gas. This move comes on the heels of other steps to clean up the country's dirty air, including phasing out highsulphur coal. Measures to protect the environment may once have been seen as luxury; now they are increasingly regarded as a necessity.

并且，大公司会认为在进入一个发展中的市场时放弃与绿色产品一起发展是个愚蠢的行为。与此相应的，在孟买的一些音乐店已经开始减少利用塑料袋包装音乐碟片的行为让顾客相当惊讶。一位高兴的顾客说“当我问到为什么时，店主回答我说我们必须要为我们的地球做点事情。”

当然，政府应该和公司一样，在对人们的压力做出反应。中国西北部的兰州，最近被命名为世界上污染最严重的都是。这是由于几十年的烧煤。在这个星期，中国政府透露称将会建设一条新的，昂贵的输气管道，以从西北来的清洁的天然气代替多年煤。这个举措是紧随着其他洁净该国空气的的行动，该行动包括逐步淘汰高含硫量的煤等。保护环境的行动可能曾被看做是一个奢侈的行为，但是现在，应该被日益看做是一个必要的行为。