Consumer attitude towards Environment Friendly Products: A Comparative Analysis

Prepared by:Gokul Umaraniya

Need to save environment

` Essential for the growth and survival of all living beings.

` Now-a-days environment has been exploited by companies in a various ways to fulfill their objectives.

Conti…` Producing environment friendly products is

the ways through which companies can contribute towards conservation of nature.

` Companies make specific changes in the product development, manufacturing, promotion and distribution so it may not harm the environment.

Environment Friendly Product

` Any product that is made, used or disposed of in a manner that significantly reduces the harm that it would otherwise cause to the environment, can be considered as Environment Friendly Products.

` e.g. : Solar products, Paper bags and notebooks.

Ethical consumerism

` Ethical consumerism is the intentional purchase of products and services that the customer considers to be made ethically. This may mean with minimal harm to or exploitation of humans, animals and/or the natural environment.

` The rise in ethical consumerism and green brands that identify themselves as ethical, has led to a rise in ethic-based decisions in the mass market, enabled by increased understanding and information about businesses practices.

Government Criteria ` The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India

Launched eco-labeling scheme known as “Ecomark” in 1991 for easy identification of environment-friendly products and to increase consumer awareness.

` The Ecomark label is awarded to consumer goods that meet the specified environmental criteria and the quality requirements of Indian Standards.

EcoMark

` According to the ministry a product is examined in terms of following main environmental impacts:

1) That they are substantially less potential for pollution than other comparable products in production, usage and disposal.

2) That they are recycled, recyclable made from recycled products or biodegradable, where comparable products are not.

Conti…

3) That they make significant contribution to saving nonrenewable resources and natural resources.

4) That the product must contribute to a reduction of the adverse primary criteria that have the highest environment impact associated with use of product and which will be specifically set for each of the product categories.

Drawbacks of Eco-mark scheme

× It is a voluntary measure.

× Awareness of eco-mark is very low among consumers.

× Investment needed to reach the high stringency standards of eco-label.

WAYS TO MAKE PRODUCT ENVIRONMENT FRIENDLY

Raw material

Manufacturing

Packaging

Usage of the product

Dispose

Example

Godrej launched eco-friendly refrigerator without eco-mark in 2001. Modicare introduce ‘beyond blue’ liquid toilet cleaner, which is environment-friendly and biodegradable. Wipro has gone for ISO-14001 certification for its waste management policies and energy conservation measures. Some hotels in India are also applying for Ecotel, a third party certification for environment-friendly hotels.

The Bangalore-based reva electric car company (RECC), A joint venture between maini group, Bangalore, and AEVLIC,USA, is involved in manufacturing cars that run on electricity. This vehicle is pollution free and costs only 40 paise per km to run.

What is Greendex?

National Geographic has partnered with GlobeScan to develop an international research approach to measure and monitor consumer progress towards environmentally sustainable consumption.

` The Key Objective:

To provide regular quantitative measures of consumer behavior and to promote sustainable consumption.

Changes in Overall GreenDex ScoreConsumers in EachCountry, 2008-10

Greendex Overall Scores(in percentage)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

• Sample• Sample characteristics• Tools used• Hypotheses

1. Sample

The sample was drawn from Delhi,Chandigadh and rural areas of Haryana and Punjab.

The sample consist 100 respondents from all the four areas.

Each area was divided into four strata.

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25 respondents were taken up from each stratum by using convenient sampling technique.

In total 200 respondents each were taken from urban and rural areas.

Around 243 males and 157 females were included in the sample.

2. SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

The average age of the sample was 31 years with standard deviation of 11.60.

Average income was Rs. 16,000 per month with SD of Rs. 12,600 in study.

The average size of the family was 4.86 members per unit with SD of 1.81.

3. TOOLS USED

LIKERT TYPE 5 – point scale

F- Test

ANOVA tables

Cont…

The questionnaire was administered individually to all the respondents.

Doubts regarding the statements were duly clarified by researcher.

To achieve the objectives of study, two-way ANOVA with sources of variation gender and Residential Status (RS) was used.

4. HYPOTHESESIn the light of the review of literature, following hypotheses

have been formulated.

H1: Males and females are likely to differ attitude towards environment-friendly product.

H2: Respondents belonging to urban and rural areas are likely to differ on attitude toward environment- friendly product.

Results and DiscussionAttitude of males and females:

The results of present study show that males and females have similar attitude towards raw material of environment friendly products.

The attitude of males and females towards packaging is similar.

Cont…

It is evident from the result that the females have more favorable attitude towards the after use features of environment friendly products as compared to males.

The main source of variation gender has yielded F ratio which is non-significant in nature for attitude towards environment friendly products.

Cont…

Attitude of urban and rural people:

• It can be concluded that urban people have more positive attitude towards the raw material of environment friendly product.

• Urban people try to study the ingredients of environment friendly product.

• Urban people have more favorable attitude towards the packaging of environment friendly products. They prefer products with packaging that doesn’t harm the environment. They also try to recycle packing material of the products.

Cont…

• The people residing in urban areas have more favorable attitude towards the after use features of environment friendly product as compared to their rural counterparts.

• Urban people, especially females, try to focus on method of discarding the product. They also feel that correct method of discarding the product should be informed on the package of product.

Cont…

Gender × Residential Status: Both the sources of variation, i.e. gender and RS have yielded non-significant F ratio for the measure attitude towards manufacturing process. This indicates that the scores of males and females across urban and rural areas are similar.  

x

On the basis of findings:

×H1 is rejected

H2 is accepted.

Thank you…