Consumers want brands to tackle carbon footprints, finds Carbon Trust

Around 70% of consumers want businesses to help them make more informed environmental choices and 58% valued companies that were reducing carbon emissions, found the study.

Euan Murray, general manager for carbon footprinting, told Packaging News the research showed that despite the credit crunch consumers still wanted to buy from companies that were “doing the right thing on climate change”.

“However, consumers struggle to name brands that are doing the right thing, and that’s a market opportunity for businesses,” he said.

The research found that only 12% of consumers felt firms were doing enough to tackle climate change, and Murray said the carbon footprint label was seen as an award for those who were.

Murray added that one of the advantages of using carbon footprint labelling was that it helped to dispel myths about things such as food miles.

“For a huge number of products, there’s no correlation between distance travelled and climate change impact, which means doing the right thing can go on at the same time as helping the developing world.”

Brands that already carry the Carbon Trust’s label include Coca-Cola, Tesco, Tropicana and Walkers.

Consumer attitudes to carbon labels

60% of consumers understand that a product has a carbon footprint
63% are more likely to buy a product if action is taken to reduce its carbon footprint
70% want businesss to do more to help them make informed environmental choices
47% want help to reduce a product’s carbon footprint when using it
12% think firms are doing enough to cut carbon emissions

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