It’s often claimed our spending habits say a lot about who we really are…
So, we asked the public how their buying habits are impacted by environmental considerations when travelling, purchasing household items or choosing between providers.
There was a list of 15 categories spread across these three areas – for example, personal travel, travel to work, purchasing food, buying household appliances, insurance and so on.
In the UK in the pre-coronavirus era, in most categories, there were more people saying their purchases are ‘never’ impacted by environmental considerations than ‘always’ impacted.
We also presented a range of potential scenarios – would people spend more, to be more environmentally friendly?
Would they accept product or service compromises if that made a difference?
Would providers’ proof of eco-friendly credentials influence their decisions?
In our last survey, with fieldwork taking place in the UK in the pre-coronavirus era, in most categories, there were more people saying their purchases are ‘never’ impacted by environmental considerations than ‘always’ impacted.
The exception was the following categories where our respondents were more likely to say their decisions were ‘always’ impacted by environmental considerations:
• Food and groceries
• Home appliances
• Utility providers for gas, electric and water
In 2021 this trend has been reversed in several cases, with all higher for ‘always’ except insurance where the response of ‘always’ has an equal number of mentions as the response of ‘never’…
In 2021 for the UK, there are now several more categories where the public is more likely to state that their choices are ‘always’ rather than ‘never’ influenced by the desire to be environmentally friendly:
• Food and groceries
• Home appliances
• Utility providers for gas, electric and water
• Car choice
• Clothes
• Holidays
• Travel for personal life
• Travel for work
Across all surveyed countries this year, there are more people saying their purchase decisions are ‘always’ influenced by environmental
considerations than ‘never’ influenced, for:
• Food and groceries
• Home appliances
• Utility providers for gas, electric and water
• Car choice
• Clothes
Additionally, this is also true for personal travel in the US, as well as for eating out and personal electronics in both the US and Canada.
To read the full report, click here.