Americans and Canadians rank at the bottom of the list for sustainable consumers.

For the third year in a row National Geographic and GlobeScan have conducted the Greendex survey to see which country has the greenest consumers. In each of the 17 chosen countries, 1,000 people answered a comprehensive set of questions online. The goal was to measure “consumer behavior in 65 areas relating to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods.”

Since you’re probably wondering how your country did we won’t make you wait until the end of the article to find out. In overall rankings, consumers in India, Brazil, and China had the honor of leaving the lightest environmental footprint. As a matter of fact, India has been in the top three each year, and made the most progress towards even more sustainable behaviors.

At the bottom of the list were the Canadians and Americans. Take a close look at those numbers. U.S. consumers ranked lower than any other group of consumers, even since the survey started in 2008.

The Greendex survey had a great deal of information about the choices consumers are making. We’re focused on the differences between India, Spain, and the U.S. to see how consumers in these three countries behaved.

understanding the issue

To know why people behave the way they do, it’s often telling to know what’s important to them. The survey asked an open ended question of what’s the most critical national issue. Overall, the enviornment ranked fifth behind economic and political problems, unemployment, and crime. The country where a significant number of consumers did site the environment as a concern was China with 37 percent of the people mentioning it. On the other hand, Americans and Spaniards didn’t mention it at all.

On a global level, people were still concerned about the economy, but environmental issues jumped way up when people were prompted with specific choices. Indians were extremely concerned about fresh water shortages, global warming, as well as water and air pollution. These issues were noted by well over 80 percent of the consumers polled on the subcontinent. For the Spanish and Americans, the economy was by far the top concern with environmental issues way down the list. For Spanish consumers, climate change was said to be a concern for 62 percent. And of environmental issues concerning the Americans, water pollution toped the list at 54 percent.

eco-friendly housing

Living in an industrialized nation means you probably have hot water, home heating, maybe even air conditioning. Which are all reasons why Spanish and American consumers ranked below the Indian ones. Indeed, fewer than half of Indian respondents said they had home heating systems. While 94 percent of Americans did. Fortunately, most U.S. homes also had insulation. One area that’s in Spain’s favor was the boom of solar-powered electricity projects built in the last few years. Consumers there had more choices to buy green energy than in many other countries.

sustainable dining

The number one behavior that can dramatically increase the carbon footprint of the kitchen table is meat. The more you eat red meat, the greater impact you have on the environment. No doubt you can guess that of the three countries we’re focusing on, Indian consumers ate the least. In fact, they had the lowest beef consumption of all the countries surveyed.

green goods

An ideal way to be an environmentally-friendly consumer is to reduce consumption and recycle what you’re done with. For those taking the survey, around 65 percent of both the Indian and American’s said they prefer to fix something rather than replace it. While just over half of the Spanish said the same.

When you do need something “new” the survey showed a growing number of Americans and Indians were leaning towards buying”used.” In 2008, only 21 percent of the Indians said they’d buy used, but that number doubled to 42 percent on the 2010 survey.

More and more people are getting the message that single-use plastic shopping bags are bad for the enviornment. And overall, 55 percent of the consumers said they’re bringing their own reusable bags with them when they shop. While 82 percent of the French were carrying their own bags, Indian, Spanish, and American consumers could do much better as they weren’t even close to that number. Perhaps more anti-plastic bag laws will help. In Canada, the government imposed a 5¢ fee on each bag; now 74 percent of consumers there bring their own.

how about you?

An interesting finding of the Greendex survey was that clearly the Indian consumer was concerned about the environment–76 percent of them say so. However, a good portion of them, 54 percent, said that the seriousness of problem was exaggerated. Be that as it may, the Indian consumer was by far the greenest of all the sample countries and getting greener. We’ll have to see if this holds steady as more of their population moves into the middle class and starts to live a lifestyle closer to that of an American or Western European.

Of course, I was curious to see how my own consumer behaviors stacked up. I’m sad to say that I got a score of 51. I know I don’t ever want to live without hot water in my house, and sadly, the likelihood of me starting a garden is slim, but I’ll keep looking for ways to be a more sustainable consumer.

Take the shortened version of the Greendex survey and see how sustainable your consumption is. Post your number below and share what you think of the Greendex survey.

From around the world and around the web, here are this week’s water stories that caught our eye. If we missed one you thought others should know about, please tell us about it in the comments.

water is too cheap

In Davos last week police used water cannons to disperse a small crowd of protesters. That’s one use for water, we suppose. But more on topic at the high-profile meeting, was water conservation and real pricing of this commodity. In this week’s Wall Street Journal review how population growth and climate change mean that smart market-based solutions and a new regulatory system are needed to ensure stability and access.

rising water costs

A perfect example of how water is under priced is India. According to DNA India, water is heavily subsidized – by as much as 60 percent for middle-class neighborhoods. Residents of Mumbai are facing possible rate hikes for their water. The rate increase is designed to bring the costs closer to reality and discourage waste. But can you imagine what that would do to your household budget?

a dry town, and we’re not just talking liquor

News about Yemen is on the rise, and given the many challenges for the impoverished country, we’re likely to hear a lot more about it. We already know there are growing concerns about militants and Al-Qaeda support. What you may not be aware of is the fact that the country is running out of both water and oil. Some experts the capital, Sanaa, could be bone dry in ten years. Talk about a source of instability!

growing concerns about energy and climate change

Above we can see how on a local level climate change and energy resources could turn into security nightmare, and that fact is not lost on the U.S. military. This week the Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review. We’ll cut to the chase for you, the study concludes:

Assessments conducted by the intelligence community indicate that climate change could have significant geopolitical impacts around the world, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and the further weakening of fragile governments. Climate change will contribute to food and water scarcity, will increase the spread of disease and may spur or exacerbate mass migration.

Now, if it’s so clear that this is likely to be a problem, we wonder when climate change will register with the American people.

water scarcity gets its own conference

Later this month, some of the nation’s biggest companies, and many smaller ones too, will gather in San Francisco to discuss water scarcity risks and water footprints in the supply chain. Some of the speakers include representatives from Procter & Gamble, Nike, Intel, and many others. You know we’ll be watching what happens; think they’ll have a Twitter hashtag?

water conservation pays big

Dow Chemical’s production site in Freeport, Texas has a new feature: 80 water cooling towers made by Nalco Company. The new system is saving over 1 billion gallons of water and $4 million per year. We’re still information on how much the system cost, but something tells us that it’s a pretty good ROI.

This week the Discovery Company’s PlanetGreen channel premiered the BBC series Blood, Sweat & T-shirts. The premise is that six young, fashion-savvy Brits go off to India for a month to see what it takes to put cheap clothes on the racks of their favorite stores.

As you can imagine, this “reality-like” show’s stars are primarily pampered middle-class westerners who quickly breakdown–even after just a few hours in a high-end textile factory. The six live with local workers, spend up to a week working just as the Indians do and immediately see how good they have it back home.

While the drama leaves a bit to be desired, in our opinion, the message that this series is attempting to highlight is important. One of the Londoners, Georgina says early on, “I just love the fact that you can buy something really, really cheap wear it once and chuck it away.” As a matter of comparison, clothing uses less of our income now than it ever did. In order for the West to have “disposable” garments, the people who grow, weave, and make our clothes live and work in often unbearable conditions.

The 4,000 workers in the first factory the show visits make little more than $2.00 a day. And that’s for the coveted spot on the sewing floor. The team is trained and tested to see if they can make the grade to sew shirts, and it turns out the work is not so easy. Three of them find out that they can’t even keep up with the quotas for ironing and buttoning. While the Brits are at this factory, they earn only as much as the Indians do. When they collect their paychecks, of a few hundred rupees, and go shopping, they quickly discover that a tube of deodorant costs more than a day’s wages. Not exactly what they’re used to back home.

From the factory that pumps out 10,000 garments each day, the six journey to a family owned operation where there are only a handful of employees and produce discount clothing destined for Western stores. Here they are asked to each make six garments from start to finish each day–well beyond their sewing and productivity skill level. To top it off, they get paid by the piece and sleep with the rest of the workers under the sewing tables. We think you can guess how well this went over with the group.

As we watch the group in the premier they are certainly getting a sense of the human costs of cheap textiles. But we have a feeling things are going to get much worse. In future episodes the six Brits will pick cotton, accompany a labor inspector searching for kids working in factories, and follow the entire supply textile supply chain.

We wonder if they’ll make it to the dye factories that pump out millions of gallons of toxic water or if they’ll be exposed to the massive amounts of pesticides used on the cotton crops?

Even as we watch these spoiled “kids” cry, giggle, and whine their way through the harsh realities of India’s textile industry, perhaps we should all take the core message to heart: the textile industry takes a toll on the people, water, and land involved in putting giving us those $5.00 tees.

An estimated 1.2 billion people lack access to clean water worldwide. Water borne disease is one of the greatest threats to the world’s poor. Diarrhea, cholera, polio, and typhoid are common diseases spread via contaminated water. The United Nations Children’s Fund, commonly known as UNICEF, believes that in India 400,000 children die from diarrhea each year. To help address the problem, Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate perhaps best known to Americans for its purchase of Jaguar Land Rover, has developed a “water purifier for the masses.”

The Tata Swach – which means “clean” in Hindi – is a water purifier that doesn’t require running water or electricity to operate, and is priced for mass adoption – according to the Associated Press, the 19 liter device costs 749 rupees (about $16 dollars).

Speaking at the product launch, Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, pictured above, said:

Safe drinking water is the most basic of human needs. The social cost of water contamination is already enormous and increases every year. Although today’s announcement is about giving millions more people affordable access to safe water, it is an important step in the long-term strategy to find a solution to provide affordable access to safe water for all.

The purification “filter” uses a combination of paddy husk ash, and microscopic particles of silver that, according to company executives, eliminates bacteria that cause 80 percent of waterborne diseases. The Tata Swach will purify up to 3,000 liters of water, and will automatically stop water flow after its purification limit is reached.

The Tata Group plans to initially produce one million units a year, and will distribute the purifier through a network of 30,000 rural Indian retailers. In the future, the company plans to expand distribution to Africa.

Ramakrishnan Mukundan, managing director of Tata Chemicals, said, “With the launch of Tata Swach, we are taking a small step towards fulfilling our Chairman’s vision of making safe drinking water available for all at an affordable cost…so with the launch of this product we are committing ourselves to work towards wiping out the curse of water-borne diseases.”

Some wonder why this hasn’t been done sooner, or in other markets. Perhaps the Swach will cause a price war and even western countries will benefit from this new, inexpensive alternative to the good ole Britta. If the Swach is available in your area, will you buy one?

As EcoWorldly reports, India’s recent shortfall in rainwater is leaving parts of the country, namely Madhya Pradesh, with half the volume of water the population needs. Consequently, more than 50 instances of water-driven violence have been reported in May alone, resulting in 12 deaths and dozens of injuries. It’s no surprise that when resources are depleted and competition increases, desperation and violence usually follow suit. It’s a principle that holds as true for water as it does for oil or diamonds.

India’s economy heavily relies on textile production and exports—the textile industry represents a whopping 14 percent of India’s total industry. As such, textiles represent the second largest employment generator in the country: 21 percent of total employment in India and nearly 35 million jobs (far more than the 2.2 million working in India’s burgeoning technology sector).

India’s water wars are an all-too-familiar paradox in the textile industry: Many developing countries rely on textiles for economic growth, but deplete natural resources in the process. While change won’t happen overnight, adopting more efficient practices in textile production and employing new technologies—like AirDye—can move us closer to a reality in which thriving industry and thriving citizens aren’t mutually exclusive.