According to Bain & Company’s new environment research, there is a disconnect between what consumers want and what most companies sell.
It found that 48 per cent of consumers considered how products are used when thinking about sustainability.
While most companies sell sustainable goods based on factors such as how they are made, their natural ingredients, and the farming practices deployed.
Consumers were more concerned about how a product can be reused, its durability, and how it will minimise waste, according to Bain.
It said that these factors caused many consumers to associate “sustainable” with “premium.”
Nearly half of all developed-market consumers believe that living sustainably is too expensive, while approximately 35 per cent of consumers in fast-growing markets believe the same.
The research also found that more than 60 per cent of businesses in the GCC region are currently off track to achieve their sustainability goals.
However, it also found that consumers are recommending brands if they are supporting social causes.
82 per cent of consumers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are likely to recommend a brand after learning that it supports a social cause.
According to Bain’s survey, consumers struggle to identify sustainable products and don’t trust corporations to make them.
50 per cent of consumers said sustainability is one of their top four key purchase criteria when shopping.
However, when asked to determine which of two given products generated higher carbon emissions, consumers were wrong or didn’t know about 75 per cent of the time.
Most were also unable to accurately describe the meaning behind common sustainability logos, such as organic production or Fairtrade.
Bain found only 28 per cent of consumers trust large corporations to create genuinely sustainable products, compared to 45 per cent who trust small, independent businesses.
For the research, Bain surveyed a sample of 23,000 consumers over the globe.
