GlobeScan’s Director of CSR and Sustainability, Eric Whan was interviewed by CBC News anchor Andrew Nichols to discuss how Canada faired in the 2012 National Geographic / GlobeScan Greendex: a worldwide tracking survey of consumer choice and the environment. For more information on the Greendex, please visit: www.nationalgeographic.com/greendex This interview originally aired live on CBC News, Friday, July 13, 2012 at 2:30 PM To view on CBC.ca, click here.
GlobeScan’s public attitudes tracking shows that the corporate world as a whole continues to suffer from a lack of trust in the eyes of consumers. Companies, and global ones in particular, are far less trusted than NGOs, and nearly half of citizens when polled this year were unable to call to mind a socially or environmentally responsible company when asked to do so.
However, the latest analysis of our findings reveals that the companies that are named as socially or environmentally responsible tend to cluster in a number of key sectors – with food companies the most frequently mentioned as socially responsible, and accounting for 13 percent of the total. As our chart this week shows – and as befits a highly consumer-facing sector, personal experience of a food company’s products or services is highly influential in making people feel that it is socially responsible, with advertising not far behind as a key information channel for communicating a sense of social responsibility.
Interestingly, though, it appears that a controversial sector does not have to be a bar to a positive reputation for responsibility for a company. Despite being rated as one of the least responsible sectors overall, oil companies are third most likely to be cited as examples of environmentally responsible companies (by 5%, same as electronic equipment / electrical appliances companies). Here, however, the consumer experience is far less significant in driving this perception, and news reports are the most significant channel by some distance – well ahead of the experience people have when filling up their cars. This highlights the need for companies seeking to engage consumers around issues of corporate responsibility to adapt the information channels they prioritize carefully according to their sector, or risk wasting precious time and budget.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
What companies do people see as socially and environmentally responsible? Why do some make the cut, and others don’t? For whatever reason, efforts of businesses around the world to project a responsible message are failing to connect with the global public. Sam Mountford, Director of Global Insights at GlobeScan, writes in our latest Proof Points blog for GreenBiz.com about recent Radar Research Program findings that show there are certain factors that the public recognizes more than others – and that the … “Tell Me A Story: The Power of Narrative in Corporate Leadership”
Download the Press Release (PDF) 5 July 2012 – As the debate over top earners’ pay continues, public dissatisfaction with income inequality remains high, according to new GlobeScan data from a 23-nation study released today, with fewer than half in most countries polled believing most rich people in their country deserve their wealth. GlobeScan polled more than 12,000 adults across 23 countries about their attitudes towards economic inequality as part of the annual GlobeScan Radar global public opinion study on business … “Public Remains Concerned Over Wealth Inequalities: Global Poll”
GlobeScan President, Chris Coulter writes in Triple Pundit to provide his impressions on how Rio+20 stacked up to expectations. While the formal governmental declaration issued last Friday is as at least as disappointing as predicted, Coulter argues Rio featured enough examples of commitments and leadership from business and civil society to enable us to visualize how a transition to sustainability can happen even if governments refuse to lead the way. Read the full article on Triple Pundit.
Published by The Financial Times on June 25th, this letter was in written by GlobeScan Chairman, Doug Miller, in response to a June 7th article entitled “In search of the elusive ethical consumer”. Michael Skapinker’s “In search for the ethical consumer” was good as far as it went, but missed a couple of key points. The corporate interest in the ethical consumer that he outlines is well founded. It is a significant and growing segment of the consumer marketplace, currently in the range … “Trust Wins Over Ethical Consumers”
While a deal may be emerging at the Rio+20 sustainable development conference, it is already being criticized as inadequate to address pressing global challenges, particularly in terms of environmental protection and mitigating climate change. The inability of political leaders to agree to radical policies—changes that could prove unpalatable to their electorates in the midst of economic crisis—is often cited as a reason for the failure of recent UN summits to meet expectations.
Nonetheless, the latest GlobeScan public attitudes tracking suggests that most citizens around the world remain optimistic that progress on environmental protection will be made over the next two decades—and those in the world’s major emerging powers are significantly more optimistic than many of their developed-world counterparts.
Summit hosts Brazil, and China, emerge as the most bullish about the prospects of leaders making environmental progress in the decades to come (77% optimistic in both cases, with 35% very optimistic in Brazil). Emerging economic powers Indonesia and Mexico are not far behind. Among developed economies, Germans are the most optimistic (67%), followed by Americans (62%)—despite the US administration being widely seen as an obstacle to a more far-reaching agreement at Rio.
While optimists are also in the majority in the UK, Canada, and France, two in five or more are pessimistic in each of countries. However, the only country with a majority of pessimists is Greece—in keeping with the very downbeat worldview apparent in our recent polling there. This suggests that, overall, electorates may be more willing to accept a switch to environmentally sustainable policies than is sometimes assumed.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
GlobeScan Sustainability Director, Eric Whan writes in The Huffington Post to explore the challenges and disappointments some delegates at Rio+20 have experienced so far. Eric explains: “some 3,000 people are spending most of their time away from the Rio Centro in the Windsor Barra hotel talking about the role of the private sector in the transformation to global sustainability. Such high levels of interest bode well. The problem is, these same people do the same thing at conferences every year. This gathering … “Rio+20 Dispatch: Rio Re-Do”
One hundred years since the sinking of the Titanic, it is still debated why that fabled and fated ship hit an iceberg and went under. But surely the root cause was the widespread belief that she was unsinkable. Twenty years since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro — which did so much to elevate environment and development on the global policy agenda — GlobeScan President, Chris Coulter, Dan Hendrix, President and CEO of Interface, and Mark Lee, Executive Director of SustainAbility fear a … “Will There Be Icebergs Near Rio?”
GlobeScan President, Chris Coulter writes in The Huffington Post to explore the discussions at Rio+20 that have been focused on the poor performance of, and low expectations for, governments when it comes to making progress on sustainable development. The level of criticism of governments across stakeholders is remarkable: in recent polls by GlobeScan and SustainAbility on the performance of institutions in the transition to sustainable development, both experts and the global public give governments the lowest ratings. Read the full article … “Rio+20 Dispatch: Government Is Dead. Long Live Government.”