Abstract
Who are the most pro-environmental in their purchasing behaviour? Is it the young, middle-aged or older consumers? The answer to this question has important implications for the marketing of pro-environmental products.
Our analysis of the Flash Eurobarometer Survey No. 256 released in 2009 reveals that it is not the young nor the very old, but the middle-aged buyers who are the most environmentally conscious. The relationship of environmental awareness and age takes an inverse U shape: awareness rises with age, reaches a peak in early to late middle age and then declines with the oldest age groups. Middle-aged consumers are more likely to declare knowledge of the environmental impact of the products they buy and are most likely to appreciate the importance of the environmental consequences of their purchases. They are also the most likely to support eco-labelling and to the mandatory labelling of carbon footprints. At the same time, the magnitude of the difference between ages varies depending on which measure of environmental awareness is being considered.
The non-linear association between pro-environmental awareness and consumers’ age holds even after controlling for gender, education, occupation and size of settlement. Although levels of environmental consciousness and age profiles vary across the countries of Europe, the greater awareness of the middle-aged consumer is sustained when we control for country.
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Notes
- 1.
A full list of studies organised by publication date may be found in Beer (2013) which is available online: http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/2646/thesis.pdf?sequence=2
- 2.
The data were provided free on request from the GESIS (Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Cologne) Archive Study (ID: ZA4983, Flash Eurobarometer 256, April 2009). See http://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer/. The data set was provided on the understanding that neither the depositors, institutes nor GESIS bears any responsibility for the analysis or interpretation of the data.
- 3.
In most EU countries and Croatia, the target sample size was 1000 respondents, except Malta, Cyprus and Luxembourg where the target size was 500 interviews. A weighting factor was applied to the national results in order to compute a marginal total where each country contributes to the European Union result in proportion to its population. These weights are not applied in our analysis so each country is weighted equally. A comparison of weighted and unweighted estimates in Appendix 2 shows that the differences in proportions are minimal, i.e. between 1 and 2 %. Furthermore the essential relationship between age and question responses is not sensitive to the presence of weighting even though the latter correctly adjusts for wider standard errors.
- 4.
Tabulations of responses over the categories of the variables are available on request. The categories themselves appear in Table 2 along with the regression results.
- 5.
These graphs are generated using the marginsplot commands following logistic and margins in Stata 12. The survey (svy) function is used to generate the weighted results which are graphed in Appendix 2.
- 6.
These marginsplot, contrast graphs, as drawn by Stata, designate the base by omitting it from the X label. Implicitly the base in panels b and d is zero as marked.
- 7.
Corresponding tables for the remaining three responses are not reproduced here but are available on request.
- 8.
It may appear that when it comes to assigning importance, it is no longer those under 20 who are the least engaged; rather it is those in their early 20s. However this difference is not statistically significant.
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Acknowledgements
The literature review and initial empirical analysis were undertaken by Ben Beer of partial fulfilment of requirements for the Masters of Environmental Studies 90 point thesis presented to Victoria University of Wellington (Beer 2013). Ben Beer’s supervisor, Professor Philip Morrison, reanalysed the data sometime later and drafted the chapter. Both authors acknowledge the use of the survey European Commission (2009). See http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_256_en.pdf.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Survey Questions Analysed
These four questions constitute the dependent variables which relate to environmental consciousness and are listed as follows (as well as response options):
-
Question 1: In general, how much do you know about the environmental impact of the products you buy and use?
I am fully
4
I know about the most significant impacts
3
I know little about
2
I know nothing
1
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Question 2: How important are the following aspects when making a decision on what products to buy? (a) The product’s impact on the environment:
Very important
4
Rather important
3
Rather not important
2
Not at all important
1
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Question 3: Some products have an eco-label which certifies that they are environmentally friendly. Which statement characterises you the best?
Eco-labelling plays an important part in my purchasing decisions
1
Eco-labelling does not play an important part in my purchasing decisions
2
I never read any labels
3
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Question 5: Should a label indicating the carbon footprint of a product be mandatory in the future?
Yes
1
No, it should be done on a voluntary basis
2
The carbon footprint is of no interest to me
3
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Source: Flash Eurobarometer Survey No. 256
Appendix 2: A Note on Weighting
The analysis in this paper has been undertaken without weighting. While there are subtle differences in the results with and without the survey’s recommended weighting, the results at the level we are interested in remain essentially the same. We demonstrate this by rerunning the results in Fig. 1 as Fig. 5 here. The primary difference of course is the higher standard errors which are reflected here in the wider confidence intervals when comparing Fig. 5 to Fig. 1. There is also a one category shift to the right in age in this particular instance. However the essential difference between the young, middle and old remains the same.
Awareness of the environmental impact of consumer goods by age of consumer (Europe 2009)
The contrasts yield almost identical results as a comparison of Fig. 5b with Fig. 1b shows. Similar results hold for the weighted and unweighted cases after the addition of controls; compare Fig. 5c with Fig. 1c and Fig. 5d with Fig. 1d.
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Morrison, P.S., Beer, B. (2017). Consumption and Environmental Awareness: Demographics of the European Experience. In: Shibusawa, H., Sakurai, K., Mizunoya, T., Uchida, S. (eds) Socioeconomic Environmental Policies and Evaluations in Regional Science. New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives, vol 24. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0099-7_5
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