Samsung touts its green credentials

A third of consumers would pay 10 per cent more for a green piece of electronics

Samsung has been extolling its green credentials in light of research showing that environmental factors are having an increasing influence on technology buying.

The company quoted its own research showing that people are willing to pay over the odds for green technology, and in some cases by a lot.

A third of consumers would pay 10 per cent more for a green piece of electronics, and 22 per cent would pay a premium of 20 per cent. The results also showed some interesting local variations. In Seattle, for example, significant numbers of people would pay 30 per cent extra.

"The environment is a big factor in buyers' awareness and it's only getting bigger," said David Steel, senior vice president of strategic marketing at Samsung.

The company said that various environmental concerns now make up nearly a third of the most important reasons to buy a new product, and that energy savings is the most popular such concern. Reliability is the single most important factor for 20 per cent of buyers, with price a close second.

The findings were backed up by a recent report from consumer research firm Roper, which examined people's intentions for 2009. The top intention, at 52 per cent, was 'to become more environmentally aware', easily beating 'giving up smoking' at 20 per cent and 'get a divorce' at four per cent.

As a result, Samsung is making a big push to woo the environmental market. " We have not been very vocal about our green credentials in the past," he said. "We still feel we have a long way to go, but it's a journey we'll have to take. "