Research Design Connection: Value of Green Certification

How much is green certification worth? Chopra and Wu studied companies in the computer and electronics industry:

“They paired each company [in their study that had undertaken eco-friendly practices] with a control firm that did not initiate eco-friendly practices but was similar across a variety of factors, including its geographical location, size, sales, and assets…Companies that engaged in eco-activities generally fell into one of two buckets: those that engaged in activities that could be performed independently and those that engaged in activities that required collaboration with other companies…Among companies that engaged in eco-activities, a subset also followed the directives of, and received certification from, a standard-setting organization like the U.S. Green Building Council, which offers the popular LEED certification…Companies that obtained a certification had substantially better operating income, gross profit, and revenue than the control companies they were compared against – more than compensating for the higher costs they faced. Overall, these companies fared best of all relative to their controls who undertook no environmental initiatives.”

“Can Going Big on Eco-Friendly Practices Really Pay Off?” 2016. Kellogg Insight, http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/can-going-big-on-eco-friendly-practices-really-pay-off?

Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.