Cohousing-L Mailing List: LOHAS

[Chris ScottHanson (chris]

Hi Chris,

What's a LOHAS market?

David
**************
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Available sites or Projects
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 12:04:51 -0800
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org

... We are seeking a broader than cohousing LOHAS market, but I hope to
include at least one cohousing neighborhood within the project...
********************

David,

See http://www.lohasjournal.com/  Also, do a Google search for LOHAS.

I would suggest to you that all cohousers, or more than 99.9% of them 
anyway, would be LOHAS consumers according to the following definition. 
 Paul Ray, keynote speaker at the last cohousing conference, had some 
VERY interesting things to say about cultural creatives (his invention) 
and cohousing, as well as comments on the LOHAS phenomenon.

At the LOHAS Journal they say the following:  (long quote from their 
website)

LOHAS is an acronym that stands for Lifestyles of Health and 
Sustainability and describes a $226.8 billion U.S. marketplace for 
goods and services that appeal to consumers who value health, the 
environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable 
living. These consumers are variously referred to as Cultural Creatives 
or LOHAS Consumers and represent a sizable group in this country: 
approximately 30 percent of adults, or 63 million consumers (see the 
Understanding the LOHAS Market: Identifying the LOHAS Consumer and 
Business and Branding Opportunities report by clicking on Research on 
the navigation bar to the left).

Environmental concerns, human health and human rights do not completely 
configure the LOHAS Consumer, however. There is more. The holistic 
worldview of the LOHAS Consumer believes in the interconnectedness of 
global economies, cultures, environments and political systems but also 
in the interconnectedness of mind, body and spirit within individuals 
in order to achieve full human potential. Personal Development is of 
utmost concern to LOHAS Consumers. Spirituality is no longer relegated 
to the New Age periphery but has immigrated to the center.

The LOHAS marketplace was originally identified by research conducted 
by Natural Business Communications, publisher of the Natural Business 
LOHAS Journal, in 2000 and is made up of five sectors: Within these 
five market divisions are products and services that improve health, 
safeguard eco-systems, develop human potential in a sustainable manner, 
reduce the use of natural resources, allow mankind and the natural 
world to live more harmoniously, and are created or conducted in a 
socially just manner.

“If the machine inspired the industrial age, the image of the living 
system may inspire a genuine postindustrial age,” say Peter Senge et 
al., in Sloan Management Review.

The five LOHAS categories include:

1. Sustainable Economy
        Green building and industrial goods
        Renewable Energy
        Resource-efficient products
        Socially responsible investing
        Alternative transportation
        Environmental management

2. Healthy Living
        Natural, organic and nutritional products
        Food and beverage
        Dietary supplements
        Natural personal care products

3. Alternative Healthcare
        Health and wellness solutions
        Acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, etc.
        Holistic disease prevention
        Complementary medicine

4. Personal Development
        Mind, body and spirit products: CDs, books, tapes, seminars
        Yoga, fitness, weight loss
        Spiritual products and services

5. Ecological Lifestyles
        Ecological home and office products
        Organic/recycled fiber products
        Environmentally friendly appliance
        Eco-tourism and travel


Understanding the LOHAS marketplace helps companies grasp the 
interconnection of consumer values across product categories--the 
common values that serve a greater idea of a holistic lifestyle as a 
global and a local citizen. The opportunities for business are immense, 
from the development of new types of channels that can better service 
LOHAS consumers to the invention of cleaner products and technologies. 
Opportunities exist for businesses to discover like-minded industries 
with which to evolve new partnerships such as the new green hotels have 
done with the eco-travel industry. Forging these types of links will 
ultimately produce new systems of distribution, new outlets for sales, 
and new technologies for cleaner production.

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