49% of Americans Plan to Put Environment on Their New Year's Resolution List

Reducing Household Energy Use is Most Common Plan for the New Year

While many people have their attention focused on the upcoming Christmas holiday, they tend to forget that New Year's Eve is just a week afterwards. This year one of the most popular New Year's Resolutions involves being more friendly towards the environment in 2008. 49 percent of those that participated in a recent survey of 1,004 adults about their New Year's Resolution indicated that they would be making a resolution regarding the environment. This information was provided in a recent press release from Tiller, LLC.

The poll was conducted by GfK Roper, which is a national polling firm, for Tiller, LLC. The poll was conducted from December 7 through December 9 of 2007. It was revealed that the most poular answer as to what poll participants were planning on doing in the new year for the environment was reducing their household energy usage with 75 percent providing that answer. That was followed up closely by 74% of those surveyed indicated they would recycle more in 2008 to help protect the environment. Meanwhile, 66 percent of those surveyed indicated they would reduce harmful household chemicals they used at home in 2008. Two of the least popular plans to protect the environment in 2008 included using fabric grocery store bags and reducing their "carbon footprint".

According to the survey results, the younger poll participants are more likely to include protecting the environment in their New Year's Eve Resolution for 2008. 58 percent of those aged 18-24 intended to include the environment in their New Year's Resolution. Out of the older generation only 50 percent of those aged 50-64 will include it in their New Year's Resolution and just 40% of those in the poll that were over the age of 65 will be including the environment in this year's New Year's Eve Resolution.

The question of whether people will honor their New Year's Eve Resolution regarding the environment will be interesting to watch. It appears that 31 percent of those surveyed felt guilty about not being more environmentally conscious last year according to the press release. This could be part of the reason for including it in this year's resolutions.