Indians are
greenest consumers still feel guilt, Americans are least green but feel least
guilt
Greener
the consumer, greener will be the products and greener will be the nation. The answer
of “how green the consumers are?” portrays how environmentally friendly and
environmentally responsible we are. So here we have the answer again, the
developing economies are greener with their environmentally responsible and
environment friendly consumers compared to those of developed economies. This
is the finding of the Greendex Survey, a collaborative study done by National
Geographic and GlobeScan (a public opinion research consultancy).
The
survey was first conducted in January 2008, across 14 countries and has since
been repeated three times, in 2009, 2010 and 2012. The survey studies the consumer
behavior provides an insight into what influences people in becoming more
environmentally sustainable as consumers. The adopted methodology measures
consumer behavior quantitatively through interviews related on their
environmental knowledge and attitude regarding use of the products that have an
impact on the environment. A score called “Greendex Score” is given to each
consumer based on their performance in the survey, average of which gives a mean
score for each country. Greendex score for a country reflects the impact the
average consumer has on the environment in its country. To ensure the equal
representation of various demographic groups a quota cap is used for education,
age, gender and region of the consumers in all the countries.
The
fourth survey, the Greendex Survey 2012 has been released recently which
studied behavior of 17000 consumers across 17 countries through online survey. The participating nations were India, China,
Brazil, Hungary, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Spain,
Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, France, Japan and Canada.
Survey comprehensively measured consumers’ behavior on 65 areas within four
categories- housing, transportation, food and consumer goods. Transport and
housing were given higher weightages considering their higher impacts compared
to food and consumer goods (See the fig.1).
Figure
1. How Greendex was calculated
Housing: Indices such as size of house, number of inhabitants,
room heating & cooling, water heating & cooling, renewable energy use,
energy efficient appliances and water uses etc. were used to analyse the
housing pattern in consumers. Indians, Brazilians, Chinese and Mexicans persist
to be top scorers in the housing sub-index in 2012. India (41.4), at the second
spot in 2008, has jumped to number one position (51.4) in this category. On the
other hand, Americans, Canadians, Japanese and British remain to be bottom
scorers (31-36) in 2012. USA continues
to be the least scorer (31.5) in the housing category in 2012. High scores of
Indian and Brazilian consumers in housing category are attributed to its low
use of electricity for residential heating and use of bio-fuel energy (in
Brazil).
Transportation: personal or
public transport, number and size of owned vehicle, ultra low emission vehicle,
travel distance, walking, air travel, distance from working place etc. were
used as the indices for transportation survey. China remains to be a top scorer
(69) in the transportation category whereas India retained its third position
(67.3) in 2012. Other top scorers continue to be emerging economies of Brazil (67.1)
and Hungary (68.1). Developed economies of America, Canada, Australia and
France persist to be bottom scorers (55-59), especially America which has the
least transportation score 55.8 and 54.9 in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
In
spite of the increase in personal automobile users in developing economies of
India and China, consumers here prefer living close to their workplace, which
positively impacts their scores. Habitual
use of public transportation makes consumers more eco-friendly. This is
particularly common in Chinese and Brazilian consumers which are among top
scorers in the transportation category.
Food: For food survey,
indices such as use of self and locally produced food, used of fruits,
vegetables, beef, chicken, sea food, bottled water etc, were analysed. India
continues to maintain its number one position (71.1) in the food category in
2012. Other top scorers persist to be China (63.7) and Australia (62.8) besides
a new addition of Sweden (64.8) which was not surveyed in 2008. Mexican,
Japanese, Americans and Spanish remain to be lowest scorers (53-57) in this
category in 2012.
India
has preserved its number one spot in the food category since 2008, partly due
to infrequent beef consumption. On the other hand, Chinese consumers are most
likely to consume locally grown food regularly, making China among the top
scorers in the food category.
Consumer Goods: Environmental
concerns for purchasing a product, recycle & reuse of product, less
packaging, number of appliances per household etc. indices were used to analyse
the consumer goods use pattern. India has shown a significant improvement in
consumer goods scores, rising to first position (57.3) in 2012 from second
(55.7) in 2008. China (56.8) and Mexico (54.5) remain to be top scorers of 2012
along with South Korea (57.1) which wasn’t surveyed in 2008. America continues
to be the least scorer (44.2) in the consumer goods category in 2012. Other
bottom scorers include developed economies of Canada, Australia and France
(45-46).
The
findings showcase that there has been a considerable increase in Indian and
Chinese consumers who prefer buying used things over brand new ones. Beside
this, at least half of the Chinese and Brazilian consumers avoid frequent use
of excessively packaged goods. This makes them top scorers in the consumer
goods category.
Table 1: Developed
nations remains top performer
Category
|
Greendex 2008
|
Greendex 2012
|
||
Top Scorers
|
Bottom Scorers
|
Top Scorers
|
Bottom Scorers
|
|
Housing
|
Brazil
(51.3)
|
USA
(23.8)
|
India
(51.4)
|
USA
(31.5)
|
Transportation
|
China
(73.6)
|
America
(55.8)
|
China
(69.0)
|
USA
(54.9)
|
Food
|
India
(72.0)
|
Japan
(54.3)
|
India
(71.1)
|
Mexico
(53.6)
|
Consumer
Goods
|
China
(56.1)
|
USA
(42.5)
|
India
(57.3)
|
USA
(44.2)
|
Overall
ranking
|
India
(58.0)
|
USA
(42.4)
|
India
(58.9)
|
USA
(44.7)
|
Source: Greendex
2012, consumer choice and the environment- a worldwide tracking survey (a
research project by National Geographic and Globe Scan), Score on a scale of
0-100.
The
survey reflects the consistent leading trend by large developing economies such
as India, Brazil and China for being top scorers since 2008. On the contrary,
developed economies such as America and Canada persist to be bottom scorers.
The
survey uncovers, the economic issues as the top national problem for consumers
from developed countries such as America, Canada, Argentina, France and
Australia. Political issues mess most Brazilian, Russian and Chinese consumers.
Energy price and supply worries most to the Japanese consumer whereas national
security threats most to the Mexicans. Strikes and labor unrest troubles Spanish
where unemployment to the Swedish. Indian consumers are suffering most from
money, greed and corruption.
The
major developing countries’ consumers seem having high concerns to the climate
change, global warming and environmental pollution issues unlike those from
developed economies. The developed countries consumers were highly concerned to
energy and fuel issues whereas war, terrorism, food safety and increasing
population troubled most of them in the developing countries.
What
is very troublesome is the developed nations like USA which is least green and
still feels least guilty.
Sanjeev
Kumar Kanchan
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