greenovator means A consumer focusing on environmental and sustainability concerns rather than prestige offered by the opportunity of owning a luxury item.
Etymology
Blend of green + innovator. First introduced in a German-language 2009 study on customer segments of automobiles by management consulting firm Arthur D. Little Zukunft der Mobilität 2020 – Die Automobilindustrie im Umbruch?, though it seemingly circulated under the radar with American city engineers.
noun
- A consumer focusing on environmental and sustainability concerns rather than prestige offered by the opportunity of owning a luxury item.“Peter Nierengarten, Director of Sustainability and Resilience for Fayetteville, AR, told me how he participated in an hour-long discussion about the use of the term sustainability at the 2012 USDN meeting in Portland, OR. Cities are using terms such as livable (Milwaukee), homegrown (Minneapolis), and greenovator (Boston).”