It has been well established that consumers have been gravitating towards more sustainable and ethical choices for many years now, with formerly marginal ideas and practices moving into the mainstream.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has arguably been the most sustained period of global social instability since the Second World War. Are consumers prepared to regress from sustainable choices and prioritise indiscriminate revenge consumption (buying products and services to treat themselves as recompense for the hardships of the pandemic and its lockdowns)? Or, having faced one crisis, are people hardened and ready to demand more than ever before from retailers and products to help alleviate environmental degradation and climate change?
The headline finding from a study conducted by YouGov on behalf of Mastercard earlier this year across 24 countries with over 25,000 respondents is that the trend towards conscious consumption has increased more rapidly as a direct effect of the pandemic. 58% of respondents were now more mindful of their impact on the environment since Covid-19, while 85% were prepared to take personal action to combat sustainability challenges. Significantly for optical practices, 42% of all respondents stated that they would be more aware of the ecological ramifications of their purchases going forward.
Some of the myriad effects of the pandemic uncovered by the study were surprising. More than half of respondents from the UK who stated sustainability issues were now more important, indicated seeing discarded personal protective equipment was a factor behind this change in opinion. Overall the findings of the study indicate that a tipping point has been reached in that there are now sufficient numbers of people actively engaged with the environment and sustainability to make negative consequences likely for businesses that ignore these issues.
A rising tide
While more consumers are going green in general, the trend is greatly accentuated in younger generations. A study presented by global services network Deloitte entitled Sustainability and Consumer Behaviour in 2021 found sustainability remained a key consideration generally, but also noted that Gen Z (typically defined as people born between 1997 and 2012) are adopting more sustainable behaviour than other groups.
The report noted that 50% of Gen Z respondents had reduced what they buy and 45% had stopped purchasing certain brands because of ethical or sustainability concerns. With the millennial generation (typically defined as people born between 1981 and 1996) similarly inclined albeit to a slightly lesser extent, the report notes that ‘as wealth transfers to younger generations, sustainability and ethical considerations will need to become the standard’.
Overall the picture is clear. Optical practices that avoid embracing sustainable methods are not only endangering the planet but their long term future too as the number of people prepared to patronise such businesses reduces.
Interview with Alex van Gestel, vice president of consumer products at EPAM Systems
Mike Hale: Tell me about EPAM’s latest consumer study.
- EPAM will soon release the second report from this project with in depth findings from UK respondents. It will be free to download at epam.com.
