About LOHAS

LOHAS, which stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, was first introduced in a 2000 research report by Natural Business Communications, which was co-founded by Frank Lampe, Silvercliffe Media’s president. Lampe also contributed to and oversaw the release of this groundbreaking research report. Based on new research by Silvercliffe Media and The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI), this market represented 2005 consumer sales of $209 billion in the U.S.

LOHAS was coined by a group of healthy-living business leaders in 1999 to describe the U.S. market for the goods and services targeted to values-based or conscious consumers. These consumers, comprising approximately 23% of U.S. adults in 2005 based on research from NMI, express their concern for environmental, social and economic justice issues partly through their purchase decisions and their support of socially responsible businesses.

Even though comprised of a number of very diverse industries, natural and organic foods and alternative energy, for example, those industries share the same, values-based consumer. The opportunity for LOHAS companies is three-fold:

• Expand the reach of the individual business into new consumer markets;

• Expand the overall market for healthy and sustainable goods and services by working with other LOHAS businesses through business-to-business trade; and

• Discover other similar industries with which new partnerships may evolve and bring new resources to each. (Source: The Natural Business LOHAS Report: A Study of the Market for “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability,” 2000)

The inspiration for LOHAS came from research of sociologist and anthropologist Paul Ray in the 1990s, when he identified and quantified a group of Americans, whom he called Cultural Creatives. Cultural Creatives emerged as a social movement out of the activist movements of the 1960s: environmental, social and racial justice, spirituality and feminism, among them. Ray and psychologist Sherry Anderson authored The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World in 1996.

From the culturalcreatives.org website, describing Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson’s book:

Sociologist Paul H. Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson draw upon 13 years of survey research studies on over 100,000 Americans, plus over 100 focus groups and dozens of depth interviews. They tell who the Cultural Creatives are, and the fascinating story of their emergence over the last generation, using vivid examples and engaging personal stories to describe the values and lifestyles that make this subculture distinctive. The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression. Surprisingly, they are both inner-directed and socially concerned, they're activists, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than other Americans. However, because they've been so invisible in American life, Cultural Creatives themselves are astonished to find out how many share both their values and their way of life. Once they realize their numbers, their impact on American life promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century.

In less than seven short years, LOHAS has grown to become an internationally recognized movement of businesses and consumers who are working together to help mitigate a number of the planet’s most pressing problems through the application of conscious capitalism and the growth of socially responsible business.

LOHAS Milestones

March 2000 – LOHAS Journal first published by Natural Business Communications

Spring 2000 -- First LOHAS market research published by Natural Business Communications, The Natural Business LOHAS Report: A Study of the Market for “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability”

Fall 2002 -- Natural Business Communications, working with NMI, publishes the first LOHAS consumer research, Understanding the LOHAS Consumer Report

Fall 2002 – Paul Ray, Ph.D., and Frank Lampe introduce LOHAS to the Japanese business community at an informational seminar held at the United Nations University in Tokyo and sponsored by E-Square Inc.

July 2003 -- The New York Times, in a full-page article, introduces LOHAS to mainstream America and American business. Click for a Word document of the article.

April 2004 – To help introduce its new hybrid SUV, the Ford Escape Hybrid, The Ford Motor Company provides major sponsorship to the annual LOHAS Market Trends Conference, held in Marina del Ray, Calif.

February 2007 – Silvercliffe Media and NMI publish the first update to the original LOHAS market research, redefining the categories and focusing more tightly on values-based consumer purchases.  

The following link will take you to the announcement of the first LOHAS research study, published in Spring 2000, which will provide a good background of the LOHAS concept: “New Study Defines $230 Billion U.S. Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Industry,” by Monica Emerich, Natural Business, October 1999.

For more information about the LOHAS marketplace and values-based consumers, see the information about a new research report from Silvercliffe Media and NMI on the home page of this site, or visit the following websites:

www.lohas.com

www.nmisolutions.com