AFP – While many individuals are making efforts to embrace eco-friendly practices, a recent report highlights a significant hurdle in choosing sustainable products: their cost.
In both Europe and Asia, the challenges of greenwashing and the high prices of sustainable goods are evident. Striving for a more environmentally conscious lifestyle as an individual can be complex, with ongoing progress alongside notable obstacles.
As heatwaves affect large swathes of the planet – and researchers suggesting that these episodes have been made more likely by human-caused climate change – we’re reminded of how urgent it is to find solutions to better preserve the environment.
An international report commissioned by Chinese group Alibaba from Britain-based consultancy firm Yonder Consulting indicates that consumers have a deep-seated desire to take action for the preservation of the planet.
Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of a sample of over 14,000 consumers surveyed in Europe, the Middle East and Asia said they want to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. In emerging Asian markets, this proportion rises to 87 per cent.
GREENWASHING – AN ISSUE EVERYWHERE
However, the obstacles preventing consumers from purchasing more sustainable products are the same in Europe and Asia. Greenwashing, for example, is a major issue.
Some 38 per cent of consumers worldwide question the trustworthiness of brands marketing products as sustainable, with 56 per cent of Thais, 48 per cent of French and 47 per cent of Singaporeans expressing doubts about the real motivation of such companies.
These are the three countries where consumers are most likely to believe that a company’s environmental claims are another way for it to justify selling more expensive products.
And pricing is the other area where Asia and Europe find common ground. For 45 per cent of consumers worldwide, sustainable products are too expensive. And it’s hard to be a more responsible consumer when everyday products are so expensive – a view shared the world over.
Thirty-three per cent of this large sample indicate that if sustainable products were more accessibly priced, it would be easier to make choices that are more in line with protecting the planet.
For 84 per cent of Thais, sustainable purchasing is prohibitively expensive, which was the case for 41 per cent of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) respondents and 37 per cent of Spaniards.
Among the regions surveyed, Asians show the greatest motivation and interest in finding information to make their patterns of consuming more sustainable. Consumers in the Philippines (93 per cent) and Indonesia (91 per cent) are the most likely to welcome getting more information about becoming sustainable.
More than anywhere else, people in emerging Asian markets are keen to know how to make more sustainable online purchases (88 per cent vs 66 per cent in Europe).
The Sustainability Trends Report 2023 was produced by Yonder Consulting based on feedback from 14,125 consumers to an online survey, interviewed between January 26 and February 14, 2023, in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UAE.
