Click to read the full study On Thursday, February 7, 2013, BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility hosted a special webinar featuring highlights from a new global Regeneration Roadmap study on how consumers are balancing environmentalism and materialism to shape the future of sustainability. A full recording of the webinar is available here Can we shop our way to sustainability? What actually motivates behavior change? What is the role of consumers in shaping a more sustainable economy? Based on the views of 6,224 consumers across … “Webinar on Consumers and the Future of Sustainability”
GlobeScan’s four practice leaders sat down to identify key trends to watch out for in 2013 in the areas of reputation, brand, sustainability and engagement. See the top three trends each have identified across GlobeScan’s core areas of expertise. Corporate reputation management, while constantly evolving, is set to undergo even greater changes in the next few years. The following trends are likely to drive this accelerated evolution. Femke de Man Director, Reputation Practice Lead Read Bio | Email Femke … “2013 GlobeScan Practice Area Trends”
NEW YORK CITY – 30 January 2013 – Is there such a thing as sustainable consumption? A new study by The Regeneration Roadmap – a joint project by GlobeScan, SustainAbility, and BBMG – finds that a majority of consumers across six international markets are seeking to reconcile their desire for shopping and style with responsibility to the environment and society through their purchases. According to the report, Rethinking Consumption: Consumers and the Future of Sustainability, nearly two-thirds of consumers globally equate shopping … “Aspirational Consumers Unite Style, Sustainability to Shape Market Trends”
The Regeneration Consumer Study is an in-depth online survey of consumer attitudes, motivations and behaviors relating to sustainable consumption, put together by GlobeScan, SustainAbility, and BBMG
27 November 2012 – On the eve of the holiday shopping season, a new study by The Regeneration Roadmap – a joint project by GlobeScan, SustainAbility, and BBMG – finds that consumers are rethinking consumption with sustainability in mind. According to The Regeneration Consumer Study, two-thirds of consumers in six countries say that “as a society, we need to consume a lot less to improve the environment for future generations” (66%), and that they feel “a sense of responsibility to purchase products that are good for the environment … “New Study Finds Consumers Buying Less and Buying Better”
Greendex 2012: Consumer Choice and the Environment – A Worldwide Tracking Survey | Highlights Report
National Geographic has partnered with GlobeScan to develop the 2012 Greendex: an international research approach to measure and monitor consumer progress towards environmentally sustainable consumption.
National Geographic has partnered with GlobeScan to develop the 2012 Greendex: an international research approach to measure and monitor consumer progress towards environmentally sustainable consumption.
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)
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”
It is often asserted that a responsible approach towards the environment is a luxury that emerging economies—with large proportions of their populations often remaining in poverty—are unable to afford, and that their top priority must be economic growth, whatever the cost.
However, GlobeScan’s and SustainAbility‘s most recent survey of global consumers, conducted in collaboration with National Geographic, shows that those in emerging economies are even more likely than their developed-world peers to reject the notion that environmental responsibility and economic prosperity are mutually exclusive.
The survey among consumers across 17 countries asked them to say whether they thought a Green Economy would be more or less effective than today’s economy in addressing a range of environmental and social challenges—and found that, globally, consumers thought a Green Economy would be more effective in all areas except for the creation of low-paying jobs.
Consumers in emerging economies are much more optimistic about the overall impact of a Green Economy than those in industrialized countries—particularly on “improving quality of life.” In those emerging economies, net expectations of the Green Economy’s effectiveness at “improving quality of life” are nearly 20 points higher than in developed economies. Similarly, the Green Economy’s effectiveness at “increasing long-term economic growth,” “reducing poverty,” and “creating high-paying jobs” is rated much more highly in emerging economies than in industrialized ones, as this chart shows.
Emerging-economy governments—notably in China—having taken a hard-line stance against tougher environmental targets in international climate negotiations in the past, but these findings suggest that they may be underestimating their peoples’ ability to take a long-term view.
Finding from a recent Regeneration Roadmap press release on Green Economy.
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)