Originally published for K Magazine, GlobeScan CEO, Christophe Guibeleguiet, takes a look at how Asian consumer attitudes to business in society are changing and the need for companies to balance opportunity with responsibility. Divided into a 3-part blog series, our first post looked at trust, optimism, and extending corporate leadership in Asia, while a future post will look at the rise of ‘Aspirational’ consumers. This one focuses on health and safety issues. In the first part of this blog series, we looked … “Redefining Sustainability in Asia: Back to Basics on Health and Safety”
Our 2014 predictions blog identifies seven key trends that we think will have particular impact across the sustainability, reputation, brand nexus. We share our forecasts for key consumer and stakeholder trends, examine the challenges that these represent to business, and anticipate how organizations are likely to respond. 1. Social inequality a rising concern. Evidence from GlobeScan’s stakeholder and consumer surveys supports the notion that social and economic inequality will be key issues of global concern this year. We will continue … “Our 2014 Predictions for the Nexus of Reputation, Brand and Sustainability”
Final report from a GlobeScan Foundation survey assessing the social, economic and environmental impact of MPOWERD Luci Solar Lights in Haiti.
The Greendex Survey, the result of a partnership between National Geographic and GlobeScan, is a global tracking study developed to quantify and monitor consumer attitudes toward environmentally sustainable consumption. In addition to providing a global perspective on behavioural trends across 17,000 consumers in 17 countries, the survey provides each respondent with their own “Greendex Score”, a calculation of their environmental footprint. As we gear up for the Greendex 2014, we decided to revisit some of our 2012 data to provide … “Out of sight, out of mind: How businesses can tackle future discounting to enable sustainable consumer behaviour”
Download the Press Release (PDF) 25 February 2013 – Environmental concerns among citizens around the world have been falling since 2009 and have now reached twenty-year lows, according to a multi-country GlobeScan poll. The findings are drawn from the GlobeScan Radar annual tracking poll of citizens across 22 countries. A total of 22,812 people were interviewed face-to-face or by telephone during the second half of 2012. Twelve of these countries have been regularly polled on environmental issues since 1992. Asked how … “Environmental Concerns “At Record Lows”: Global Poll”
This article by Sam Mountford was originally published on GreenBiz.com Feb 7 2013, as part of our Proof Points blog series. 7 February 2013 – Environmental concern among the global public is on the wane across a whole range of issues, GlobeScan’s most recent polling finds. But, with no sign that the problems facing the planet are any less severe – quite the reverse – how do we explain this increase in apathy? The trend is certainly stark. GlobeScan tracks public concern on six … “Why We’re Turned Off and Tuned Out to Environmental Crises”
Findings from a new public opinion poll conducted as part of The Regeneration Roadmap (a joint project by GlobeScan and SustainAbility)
As high-level talks at the Doha Climate Conference got underway this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned humanity was locked in a “race against time” against global warming. However, GlobeScan’s most recent opinion polling shows that the global public’s concern about the climate continues to fall sharply. After rising for much of the last decade, the proportion of people describing climate change as a “very serious” issue dropped in the wake of the failed 2009 Copenhagen intergovernmental summit, and … “As Doha conference gets underway, climate concern falling sharply”
When BP posted a $1.4bn loss this week (once oil price fluctuations are taken into account), many analysts pointed to the role played by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The company announced this week that a further $847 million has been set aside to pay the costs incurred by that disaster.
Yet GlobeScan’s Radar 2012 global public opinion data indicates that BP’s response to the spill may be allowing it to recover lost ground in public esteem faster than many had predicted. The British firm emerges at or near the top of the list of firms considered to be environmentally responsible. Globally, BP is one of the top twenty most-mentioned corporations when people are asked to name a large company that is a leader in environmental issues.
In the UK, moreover, BP is the firm most frequently mentioned as being environmentally responsible (6%), and in the US it is the second most frequently mentioned (5%), behind only General Electric. Note that no company is cited by more than 4% of global respondents (due to the wide diversity of national firms mentioned) and 44% of people globally, and that higher proportions still in the UK and USA could not name, or chose not to name, an environmentally responsible company.
This uptick in public perception is welcome news for the embattled company, trading as it does in a market driven by more than tangible assets. The reasons given by respondents for naming BP as a responsible company indicate that it has benefitted from low expectations for corporate responsibility in general, and oil company behavior in particular. The unstated assumption is that companies will not clean up their mess, but will “cut and run” once profits are threatened.
While many undoubtedly still see the company as an environmental villain, these figures suggest that paying substantial compensation to those affected by the spill, and pouring resources into the clean-up effort in the Gulf of Mexico—and being seen to do these things—has enabled BP to cut through public cynicism and start to rebuild its reputation.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 1, 2012
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
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)