GLOBE-Net (May 13, 2009) - In the second annual survey to
measure and monitor consumer behaviors that have an impact on the
environment, the National Geographic Society and the international
polling firm GlobeScan have found an increase in environmentally
friendly consumer behavior in 13 of the 14 countries that were
surveyed in both 2008 and 2009.
Released today, "GreendexTM 2009: Consumer Choice
and the Environment-A Worldwide Tracking Survey" is a
comprehensive measure of consumer behavior in 65 areas relating to
housing, transportation, food and consumer goods. Greendex 2009
ranks average consumers in 17 countries-up from 14 in
2008-according to the environmental impact of their discretionary
and nondiscretionary consumption
patterns.
Like last year, the top-scoring consumers of 2009 are in the
developing economies of India, Brazil and China; U.S. and Canadian
consumers again score lowest. Consumers registering the best
year-on-year improvement in environmentally sustainable consumer
behavior are the Spanish, Germans, French and Australians, while
Russians and Mexicans show the smallest increase. Brazilians are
the only consumers measured in both 2008 and 2009 to show a
decrease in their Greendex score.
Much of the increase in the overall 2009 Greendex scores was due
to improvement within the category of housing, where the Greendex
measures the energy and resources consumed by people's homes.
Changes within the categories of personal transportation, food and
consumer goods were mixed, some up, some down. The results show
that both cost considerations and environmental concerns were
motivators in consumers adopting more environmentally sustainable
behavior over the past year.
First conducted in 2008, the Greendex survey was expanded in
2009, with the addition of Argentina, South Korea and Sweden to
Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain,
Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the United States.
Seventeen thousand consumers were polled online (1,000 in each
country), answering questions that measured their behavior in the
areas of housing, transportation, food and consumption of goods.
Each respondent earned a score reflecting the environmental impact
of his or her consumption patterns within each of these four
categories, and four corresponding "sub-indices" were
created.
Consumers were then assigned an overall Greendex score (a
measure of the relative environmental sustainability of their
consumption patterns) out of 100, based on their performance within
the four sub-indices. By comparing this year's scores with the
previous year, changes in environmentally sustainable consumption
at both the global level and within countries can be
monitored.
Consumption as measured by the Greendex is determined both by
the choices consumers actively make-such as repairing rather than
replacing items, using cold water to wash laundry, choosing green
products rather than environmentally unfriendly ones-and choices
that are controlled more by their circumstances-such as the climate
they live in or the availability of green products or public
transport. The initiative considers both of these types of factors,
with 60 percent of the 65-variable index based on choice or
discretionary behavior.
Consumers in all 14 countries surveyed in both 2008 and 2009
show an increase in their Greendex scores this year, except Brazil,
whose slight decrease dropped them from first to second place.
Not surprisingly, respondents in most countries named the
economy as their No. 1 national issue, much more so than in 2008.
But the results indicate that economic troubles may have worked to
the environment's advantage in a number of instances: Among those
who reported that they reduced energy consumption at home over the
past year, some 80 percent say that cost was one of the top two
reasons they did so.
And of those who say they reduced their consumption of fuel for
motorized vehicles in the past year, nearly three-quarters cite
cost as one of their top two reasons. Furthermore, majorities in
four countries-Argentineans, Mexicans, South Koreans and
Chinese-said that high fuel prices motivated them to change their
transportation habits permanently due to fuel prices.
"Interestingly, 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 behavior 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."
Individual Country Reports are available. The report for Canada
is available here. That for Consumers in the United
States is available here.