Campaigns around Australia encourage consumers to purchase energy products from a supplier that has been endorsed by the Australian Government’s GreenPower scheme.
Credit: Greenpower
WASHINGTON DC: The world's consumers are paying more attention to their impact on the environment, encouraged in part by the economic crisis and the need to save on energy costs, according to a new report.
The National Geographic Society and the international polling firm GlobeScan surveyed 17,000 consumers in 17 countries - up from 14 countries last year - and evaluated consumer behaviour in 65 areas related to housing, transportation, food and consumer goods.
India, Brazil and China got the highest marks in the 2009 Greendex for environmentally positive consumer patterns, while U.S. and Canadian consumers scored lowest.
"Consumers registering the best year-on-year improvement in environmentally sustainable consumer behaviour are the Spanish, Germans, French and Australians, while Russians and Mexicans show the smallest increase," the National Geographic said in a statement.
Silver lining of economic crisis
The global financial crisis has played an important role in modifying behaviour in most countries, the authors of the report said.
"The economic upheaval appears to have had a silver lining for the environment," said Terry Garcia, National Geographic's executive vice president, Mission Programs. "But will positive behaviour changes survive when an economic recovery starts?
"We hope the green behaviors that consumers are adopting now to cut costs will become part of their permanent lifestyles and that environmental concerns will become increasingly important for consumers around the globe."
Of those polled, 80% said that the main reason behind their drop in energy consumption was to save money.
Overall, 55% said they were "very concerned" about environmental problems, while 14% said they had no concerns at all. Six out of every 10 people polled believe that they should consume less to preserve the environment for future generations.
Powerful inertia and growing consumerism
Majorities in Argentina, Mexico, South Korea and China said that high fuel prices motivated them to change their transportation habits permanently.
"Both the powerful inertia of energy-intensive countries and the growing consumerism in large, rapidly developing economies present a challenge to governments and industry," said Lloyd Hetherington, CEO of GlobeScan.
"It is critical for both to create more sustainable choices for consumers across the full spectrum of consuming behaviour," he said.
The survey consulted people in Germany, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, Spain, the United States, France, Britain, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Sweden.
