Beyond the Green Niche.

• Author: Mark, Jason
• Position: Essay

When the satiric website Stuff White People Like chose "coffee" the first item for its list of the habits and hang-ups of trend-setting twenty- and thirty-somethings, the site's author said you'd receive extra points if you drank "Fair Trade" coffee.

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If the joke stings, it's because fair trade has come to seem like just another accessory of lifestyle liberalism. I drink fair trade coffee because I believe in it. I know it promotes social justice by increasing the earnings of poor farmers, protects the environment by encouraging a transition to organic methods, and generates profit through quality and excellence. But I also know I'm in a distinct minority. Fair trade represents just 4 percent of the U.S. coffee market.

Fair trade coffee's tiny market share is emblematic of green enterprises. Organic foods represent less than 5 percent of the U.S. food industry. Made-in-the-USA American Apparel T-shirts might be all the rage among fashion-conscious hipsters, but they register barely a blip in the larger clothing market. Hybrid cars, a conspicuous status symbol in Hollywood, account for just 2.7 percent of all vehicles on the road.

These small numbers shouldn't eclipse the encouraging news that socially responsible and environmentally sustainable products are growing wildly compared to conventional industries. For several years, sales of organic food, hybrid vehicles, and fair trade products have increased at an annual rate of around 20 percent. Wind-generated electricity grew by 50 percent between 2007 and 2008 alone.

But still, why aren't more people buying green? What will it take for these products to appeal to a majority of Americans?

These are important questions because green products will never help save the world if they remain the treat of an affluent, highly educated elite.

"We are not going to build a movement that is about addressing environmental destruction on a large scale if it's centered around a few people," says Omar Freilla, founder of the Green Worker Cooperatives, which has launched a recycled building materials store in the South Bronx. "The eco chic audience--that's appealing to a higher income bracket. For us, though, we don't see that as being the definition of green."

Here's one simple truth: Many people don't buy sustainable products because they can't afford to.

Adam Werbach--the former president of the Sierra Club and now CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi S, a global PR and marketing firm that consults for Wal-Mart, among other large companies--explains the situation. About 10 to 12 percent of Americans are willing to pay more for ethical products, Werbach says...