The KBB industry has made enormous strides over recent years to reduce the amount of energy used to operate our essential appliances and I have always believed this to be an excellent move. Delegates at the recent WWF resource-efficiency conference in Brussels, however, heard that encouraging consumers to 'buy green' by making environmentally-friendly goods less expensive, might have drawbacks as the 'rebound effect' could offset gains by encouraging greater consumption.

Environmentally-friendly goods are often considered by consumers to be too expensive - and as the economic crisis continues to bite, many suggest that tax incentives are needed to make green shopping more affordable. Yet conference delegates were warned that selling the resource efficiency agenda to consumers as cost-saving could have some serious fallout. 

"Selling resource efficiency through the cost-saving argument will not work as people will just go and buy other stuff," noted WWF UK's David Norman, who said that the same problem applies, for example, to the energy efficiency gains obtained from more efficient fridges which is being offset by the regular addition of new energy-consuming gadgets into our homes. 
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Yours,