The SMART Green Economic Revolution

A SMART Green Economic Revolution is reshaping what we buy, how we buy it and who we buy from.

The smart part of this mega-trend revolution is the mobile smart phone and iPad that enables the consumer to execute two revolutionary paths for deciding on what to buy:

1. The ability to scan a product’s bar code to access a product’s price, quality, health impacts and environmental footprint
2. The ability to connect with their trusted social network while holding the product inside the retail store.

The second driver is The Green Economic Revolution. The prices of unsustainable products are going up while the prices for more sustainable goods are falling as they gain global manufacturing economies of scale.

Combined, these two mega-trends are shifting the world’s economy from molecules to electrons.

Earth 2017′s economic projection are that by 2017 these mega-trends will have created a $10 trillion global annual revenue economy in sustainable goods and services.

Here’s a few key facts on the mobile smart revolution:

• Twitter is rapidly becoming the “newspaper” that is customized to the reader’s interest and mobile, with 43% of Twitter users connecting through their mobile device

• At the recent Always On Mobile Venture Summit a MassS360 survey reported that 86% of businesses now support iPad

• Among consumers, 59% use social networks like Facebook to compare prices; 56% do so to talk about sales and price specials

Here’s some key Green Economic Revolution insights:

• 73% of consumers believe it is important to buy from green companies

• The global least cost solar manufacturer, First Solar, reports achieving 4GW manufacturing capacity which is equal to powering 2 million homes

• 52% of companies working to reduce energy costs by 25% over the next 2 to 3 years

The combined result of these two mega-trends is a  SMART GREEN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION that will restore our jobs, economy and environment.

The engine of the Smart Green Economic Revolution is the consumer seeking “in me, on me and around me” solutions. The more consumers are enabled with non-advertising supplied information from their smart and mobile devices the more confused (mistrustful) they are on what to buy and who to buy from.

The consumers’ emerging procurement path is to rely upon their smartphones and mobile social networks to guide their purchase toward products that align value with values. A mega-trend opportunity!

Bill Roth is the founder of Earth 2017, a company that connects businesses with customers who are seeking smart, healthy and green solutions. His book, The Secret Green Sauce, profiles best practices of businesses making money going green.