According to a study by the University of Jyväskylä and the LUT University, green consumption is more common in Finland than it is in Sweden or the United Kingdom, yet the share of non-green consumers continues to be significant. Green consumers tend to be ecologically conscious, but they are also aware of brand and fashion trends. So-called premium green consumers had a higher income level and were younger than other consumers on average.
Researchers examined the consumer profiles of green and non-green consumers in Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom and the interconnections of green attitudes and consumers’ background factors, such as income level. Green and non-green consumers were profiled based on how important they considered ecological production, local production, price, quality, brand and fashionability in their latest purchase decision.
Finland a leader in green consumption
There was one group that existed in Finland only: modest green consumers. For them, ecological consiousness was important but quality, brands and fashionability did not matter that much. These consumers were older and had lower average income, and they were more typically females than males.
Slightly over a quarter of Finns considered greenness important in their purchase decision. Roughly half of them were premium green consumers and half modest green consumers. In Sweden, the share of green consumers was clearly smaller: slightly less than one fifth were premium green consumers. In the UK, the proportion was even smaller, only 12%.
“It is interesting that green consumers are nowadays conscious of brands and fashionability, but their share is still quite small,” says the principal investigator, Professor Terhi-Anna Wilska.
“In addition, it is notable that we found the group of modest green consumers in Finland,” she says. “There continues to be some ecological thinking typical of agrarian society, especially among older people.”
Slightly over one fifth of all consumers in Finland were non-green. Surprisingly, in Sweden their share was even greater: over one fourth of consumers did not care if the product they bought was ecological or not. The United Kingdom had the smallest share of non-green consumers, slightly less than every sixth person.
Lack of information and price not necessarily the main barriers for purchasing green products
In all three countries, non-green consumers typically had a lower income, and they were older than green consumers. In the UK, they were also more often men than women. The purchasing decisions of non-green consumers strongly reflected their attitudes. In other words, they did not consider ecological thinking important and, as a result, did not make ecological purchasing decisions.
“It is a general belief that most consumers would like to buy ecological products, but in practice it is prevented by price, lack of knowledge and other situational factors,” says Wilska. “In this study, we did not really identify any conflict between attitudes and behaviour, which is interesting and requires further investigation.”
The study, conducted by the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä and LUT University, is part of the DigiConsumers project funded by the Strategic Research Council that works in connection with the Research Council of Finland. The research is based on a survey conducted in Finland, Sweden and Great Britain in the spring of 2021 among 3,000 respondents aged 18 to 75.