Only 20% will pay extra for Sustainable Products

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Can't Afford

to be

Eco Friendly?

A recent survey in Malaysia has shown that only 20% are willing to pay extra for sustainable products. Gee - that is something I could have told them without the need for a survey!!! In fact, I would have thought the figure was even smaller.

I might be willing to pay a small amount extra for sustainable fuel but no more than say 5%. If governments want to get the people over to sustainable products and fuels, they will have to do better that the current poor efforts at persuading the people to invest.

SEAI got it totally and completely wrong with wood-pellet heating. They made huge grants available for installing the equipment but neglected to deal with the fuel supply issues.

1. They did not check the availability of fuel. - Not even a phone call to the main supplier.
2. They did not check the quality of available fuels.
3. They didn't even think of grant aiding the fuels as a means of promoting the method.
4. They made no attempt to quality control the supply or installation of equipment.
5. They made no attempt to ensure fair pricing. You could buy equipment at half the price elsewhere.

If you ask someone to invest say €8,000 in a project - you will first have to convince them that they can expect a reasonable return on their money. There are a great deal of unhappy wood-pellet users out there.

Any future efforts at promoting alternative and sustainable power and heating, will have to carry with it a long term guarantee of some sort on the returns in terms of fuel and equipment reliability.

I am just very happy I stuck with my solid fuel stove and oil heating. I have just bought a ton of smokeless coal as it represents much better value than the more eco-friendly alternatives.



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