Do you pay more for sustainable products?

[Jon]

I'm not sure I do, or even would you know.

I was thinking about this today as I've found a web hosting company that offers 'Sustainable' hosting. So Carbon free etc. but their costs are quite a bit higher and i'm also not blind that it's quite a clever marketing ploy.

I'd quite like an electric car and thought I might get one or a hybrid when I was looking for a car last year but again, the cost put me off!

Same when I was looking at American Fridge Freezers last year getting the one best-rated energy wise 9 times out of 10 meant having to spend the most cash!

Is price just too much of a barrier do you think for people to feel good about trying to help the planet?

 

[homie]

I'll talk a bit about cars...

This big push for electric cars, is not achieving very much imho. We are still way off the government's long term goal of going all electric. The range of most all electric vehicles is still pretty poor, and despite what people think the technology hasn't moved forward with any major leaps or bounds (Even Tesla still use the same 18650 cells I use for my electric bicycle) The infrastructure is still tiny and there are many practical solutions to find - how does someone living in a flat above a shop or a terrace house with no driveway charge their car?, Where is all the extra electricity going to come from that will be needed to charge an entire country's worth of cars every night? The batteries don't last forever either. Who'd want to buy a 5 year old Prius and find out it needs a new battery costing £££

Another option is the hydrogen fuel cell, which is the cleanest fuel there is and would have a much bigger range than a battery powered car, but its not very efficient and development on hydrogen cars seems to have halted and no infrastructure to refuel has been put in place.

The big love in seems to be for hybrid cars. Ones like the new Toyota Corolla can charge themselves as they drive, increasing range. But how do they charge themselves? With an internal combustion engine. Which rather defeats the purpose. Especially as you still have an oily engine to maintain as well as complicated duel power systems that just seems like extra things to go wrong to me.

In short, more people need to ride bicycles.

 

[Jon]

I'll talk a bit about cars...

This big push for electric cars, is not achieving very much imho. We are still way off the government's long term goal of going all electric. The range of most all electric vehicles is still pretty poor, and despite what people think the technology hasn't moved forward with any major leaps or bounds (Even Tesla still use the same 18650 cells I use for my electric bicycle) The infrastructure is still tiny and there are many practical solutions to find - how does someone living in a flat above a shop or a terrace house with no driveway charge their car?, Where is all the extra electricity going to come from that will be needed to charge an entire country's worth of cars every night? The batteries don't last forever either. Who'd want to buy a 5 year old Prius and find out it needs a new battery costing £££

Another option is the hydrogen fuel cell, which is the cleanest fuel there is and would have a much bigger range than a battery powered car, but its not very efficient and development on hydrogen cars seems to have halted and no infrastructure to refuel has been put in place.

The big love in seems to be for hybrid cars. Ones like the new Toyota Corolla can charge themselves as they drive, increasing range. But how do they charge themselves? With an internal combustion engine. Which rather defeats the purpose. Especially as you still have an oily engine to maintain as well as complicated duel power systems that just seems like extra things to go wrong to me.

In short, more people need to ride bicycles.

See I wonder if the electronic car stuff is working out better for businesses.

Before I left work they had swapped over the entire fleet of vans to electronic ones and had installed electric charging points all over Leeds!

Center parcs have changed all their vehicles to electric and I think Royal Mail might be doing the same thing at the moment

Maybe the numbers stack up much better in the commercial world?

 

[homie]

Maybe the numbers stack up much better in the commercial world?

I think they probably do, especially if they are doing lots of short range stop start journeys (like postman)

 

[InItForTheMoney]

Are there not tax breaks that (potentially) make it worthwhile for companies to switch to electric vehicles?
Agreed on the biking thing. I really need to sort a £50 fixie to start commuting into work.

Speaking more generally, I've switched to a green energy supplier and probably wouldn't switch back. Although it helps that whilst not the cheapest, their prices still beat the big 6 and the service has been pretty good.

Speaking more generally, I am happy to spend a bit more to buy, say, recycled toilet paper or loose veg so I don't have to deal with all the plastic (surely loose should be cheaper anyway?!) and can assuage my middle-class, bleeding heart sensibilities.

As for your webhosting @Jon, yeah, it strikes me that it's a gimmick to differentiate themselves, but might perform quite nicely if a company has worked hard to get to a point where they're committed to being carbon neutral.

 

[geebobuk]

I've had quite a lot of polls, surveys & app questions about sustainable products in the last week or so. I would say I have rarely shown interest in moving over to green energy or buying organic produce etc. My issue is mainly that I perceive a lot of the hype surrounding them makes me consider a lot of what is available to be gimmicky, irrespective of whether that is true or not.

 

[katykicker]

Personally, I'd pay a little more for something sustainable/eco-friendly, but you don't always have to.

I've got renewable energy for my electricity company and it was cheaper than one of the big 6 companies I was with before.