2 Conscious Consumerism

Conscious Consumerism

By: Shikha Makhija (K J Somaiya Institute of Management)

Let’s go back to thinking about your trips to the grocery store. When you glance through aisles of endless drinks, food, and many other products, do you actually consider the impact of every product while making a purchase? Do you actually sit and understand the after effects of using the products on the environment? Most of us focus on the price of the product, often by the necessity. But, sometimes, we may also consider where has this egg come from? In what condition was the chicken breeding and living? What kind of impact did this have on the environment?

Yes, some of us think about a product’s social impact while making purchases.

It is important to think about what kind of questions do you ask yourself while going shopping.

Introduction

Let quickly have a look at the definition of Conscious Consumerism: When buying practices are driven by a resolution to making decisions that have a positive economic, social and environmental impact is what Conscious consumerism is. In simpler terms it is a step taken by the consumers to buy ethical products, avoiding ethical companies and sometimes not making any purchases at all. In this way, a consumer who is conscious about the environmental and social impacts, would think twice before making any purchase and would avoid the unnecessary buying. This also impacts the companies who produce these products and hence it drives them into the direction of going green and caring about the environment.

Conscious consumerism has been a trendsetter in many countries and is growing day by day.

As per reports in GWI (Global Web Index), 62% of eco-conscious consumers in the UK and U.S. agree to it that eco-friendly products are better for their health.

As per statistics, there is a high percentage of population who have agreed that they would pay more for eco-friendly products. The diagram below shows that Millennials (age 22-35) are leading as they are more aware about the dynamics of the economy and they are the future. They are the population that drive our country and are quite experimental with changing environments.

Reference : https://blog.gwi.com/chart-of-the-week/green-consumerism/

As per the graph show below, while taking into consideration the “greenness” of different product categories, major impact of mindset is seen in case of cleaning and personal care products. Through this it could be assumed that people believe that eco-friendly products are more natural and better for their health, which is also likely to be why food is highly researched.

Reference : https://blog.gwi.com/chart-of-the-week/green-consumerism/

Benefits of Conscious Consumerism

When individuals consume consciously, industry responds to meet consumer demands. This leads to increase in accessibility. As access to information increases, there is an expansion of products leading to more product choices for the consumer which in turn allows more people to focus on ethics and standards of daily consumption.

Well, as consumer is the center of attention for every company, the shift in mindset of consumer leads to various companies taking a stand and working towards satisfying the needs of their consumers. If consumers have a stance of wanting to engage with companies that prioritize social and environmental wellbeing, then companies will be left with no choice but to drive their production activities and logistics towards a green move.

Back in 2013, only 20% of S&P companies used to disclose their social, governance and environmental information. By the time world reached 2019, 90% of S&P started publishing their reports. This shows that the brands are definitely paying attention.

Still not convinced?

Here are some insights from Big Market Giants as they move towards sustainability:

• IKEA - Furniture and home brand, IKEA has shifted its entire business model to sustainability. “People & Planet Positive” is its green strategy where they aim at sourcing materials for their supply chain from the most sustainable providers.

• Unilever - Unilever has made sustainability an integral part of its organizational culture. Unilever announced its sustainable living plan in 2010 that aims at doubling the company’s profits thereby reducing its environment impact to half (or 50%) by 2020. The company managed to reduce its landfills by 75% in almost 5 years of times. With such a growth the company has the potential of achieving its true goals

• Panasonic – Panasonic has managed to keep it low key unlike its competitors but has constantly tried hard and has been awarded for all its efforts. Panasonic has also introduced an ecofriendly plan that aims at making its day-to-day operations go green.

To begin with, Panasonic moved its North American headquarters to another location in a move to reduce the carbon footprints and commute distance of its employees. Moreover, under its product to product scheme, Panasonic started reusing the left over plastics from its existing electronic products to make new appliances. The company has managed to plant more than 3 billion trees since the year 2007.

• Nike - Nike initially was not inclined towards sustainability, however, when it started to introduce more green practices the brand empathy started increasing in the masses and then Nike never stopped.

Nike changed its entire business practices in order to attain sustainability. It redesigned boxes with reduced packaging and also created a section on their also that gave more awareness to masses regarding the impact of different fabrics on environment.

Future

Today, with change in consumer’s consumption, the industry continues to move further towards a better practices for near future. Regenerative practices in field of agriculture are aimed at improving the health of the planet something that was never imagined decades ago is now reality. This is also leading to reverse climate change.

World is moving towards more organic produce which will lead to improving the quality of life of individuals, lack of diseases, a more satisfied planet earth and much more. The benefits are countless.

The impact of consumer is leading to world—and market-changing effects. It has been proven and seen that choosing renewable energy is more than just a fashionable trend. As people change their mindset and move towards a more sustainable environment, soon we will have an increased awareness and provisions for using and consuming more and more renewable sources of energy thereby making earth a better place to live in!