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 With the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen rapidly approaching in December, the world’s gaze will once again focus on the environmental challenges ahead.
In the food and grocery industry, we have made great strides in helping to tackle climate change, such as:
• Building new eco-friendly stores
• Reducing primary and secondary packaging
• Reducing vehicle miles
• Improving supply chain efficiency
• Investing in new technologies
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What do shoppers really think about climate change? |
But what do shoppers really think about climate change? Do they feel able to make a positive difference to the environment through their shopping decisions?
Shopper opinion about climate change
Climate change tends to be treated as a polarised debate between believers and non-believers. However, our recent shopper research, Shoppers in 2012: Is your business ready for them?, reveals that the nation is evenly split between three contrasting positions:
• A third accept climate change as reality and are optimistic that the problem is still largely solvable should the collective will be galvanised
• Another third are much more pessimistic believing that it is probably too late to reverse the impact of climate change
• The final third are dismissive of the issue, either unconvinced or suspecting it will prove to be only a minor problem
Opinion about climate change - shoppers
This picture provides some encouragement to those seeking to galvanise action over climate change.
• Combining those who regard climate change as solvable with those who think it is irreversible provides an almost two thirds majority who have accepted climate change as a significant challenge. This provides a reasonably sized consensus for change.
• Our research also reveals that those who feel more fatalistic about climate change are just as likely to take actions to limit its impact as those who have a more optimistic outlook.
Shoppers are feeling less empowered
One of the most dramatic findings within our Shoppers in 2012 research revealed that shoppers feel far less able to make a positive difference to the environment through their grocery shopping than they did two years ago.
Do shoppers feel more or less empowered?
This change in mood could be partly driven by a growing realisation of the importance of co-ordinated international action.
It also suggests that the food and grocery industry needs to continue to clearly communicate climate change initiatives currently being undertaken in order to make consumers aware that they can make a difference through their shopping:
Research conducted this year on behalf of the Carbon Trust Standard revealed that seven in ten (70%) consumers do not feel confident that they can clearly identify which companies are environmentally responsible, and six in ten (59%) are sceptical about the environmental claims companies make.
There’s a lot of convincing still to do
Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen conference, food and grocery companies seeking to make a virtue of their contribution towards tackling climate change (e.g. by declaring the carbon footprint of their products and demonstrating a commitment to its reduction) have a number of challenges. These companies need to:
• Engage the many shoppers yet to be convinced of climate change or that anything can be done to reverse it
• Demonstrate how they are helping their shoppers make a real difference
• Communicate the progress made in reducing their environmental impact in an upbeat way but without encouraging claims of green-wash
• Keep apace with growing shopper expectations - a single wave of improvements is unlikely to suffice.
More information:
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