Indians most eco-friendly consumers: Survey

Betwa Sharma
New York, Jun 6 (PTI) Indians are the most eco-friendly
people while Americans the least, according to a 17-nation
survey on consumers' progress towards environmentally
sustainable consumption patterns.
India toped the Consumer Greendex, compiled by National
Geographic which studied 17,000 consumers in 17 countries.
The consumers were asked about energy use and
conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the
relative use of green products versus traditional products,
attitudes towards the environment and sustainability and
knowledge of environmental issues.
The survey found the US the least eco-friendly in its
consumption patterns.
Consumers in emerging economies topped the Greendex
ranking, while the six lowest scores were bagged by consumers
in industrialised countries, according to the National
Geographic.
The rankings are Indians, Brazilians, Chinese, Mexicans,
Argentineans, Russians, Hungarians, South Koreans, Swedes,
Spanish, Australian, German, Japanese, British, French,
Canadians and Americans.
Compared to 2008, the largest increase in environmentally
sustainable consumer behaviour came from the Indians, Russians
and Americans.
In contrast, consumers in Germany, Spain, Sweden, France
and South Korea have slipped slightly over the past year.
While the US has the least sustainable behaviour, it has
made some progress in the past three years. The Americans'
average Greendex score has increased by 1.3 points each year.
The National Geographic attributed much of the increase
in the overall Greendex scores to more sustainable behaviour
in the housing category in both 2009 and 2010, which was
measured by the energy and resources consumed by people's
homes.
Brazilians, Indians, Mexicans and Chinese topped the
housing category, while Germans, French, Canadians, British,
Japanese and Americans were the last six.
But the Americans, Hungarians, British and Australians
also saw marked increases in their indices in this area, as
consumers made moves to improve the energy efficiency of their
homes.
Most people surveyed cited costs as the reason for the
decrease in consumption but between 20 and 50 per cent pointed
out environmental concerns.
In terms of personal choices like mode of transportation,
there were mixed results with some countries indicating
improvement and others deterioration. (More) PTI BS
MYR

SURVEY-INDIANS 2 LST
Consumers in China, India and Argentina are the least
likely to own at least one vehicle, but the use of cars is
increasing there, the study said.
Since 2008, British, Canadian and Indian consumers have
reduced their frequency of driving alone in a car -- perhaps
caused by fuel costs -- while the percentage of Chinese
consumers who drive alone in a car or truck has increased.
The survey also found that since 2008, the number of
consumers who prefer to repair rather than replace broken
items has continued to increase in China, India and Russia.
There is also a growing trend to conserve fresh water,
particularly among Indian and Russian consumers.
Further, the trend of buying environmentally friendly
products is most common in emerging economies, particularly
among Chinese and Indian consumers. British and Japanese
consumers are the least likely to report such behaviour.
The study also noted that Indians and Chinese are the
only two countries in which a majority of consumers report
avoiding excessively packaged goods.
Majorities of consumers in most countries frequently use
their own bags when visiting stores, with the French taking a
lead on this and more Canadians also adopting this behaviour.
While nearly all consumers have at least one television
or one computer, more American households contain four or more
televisions.
More than half of American, British and Canadian
consumers, however, say that they frequently recycle their
electronic items.
People were asked in the survey by National Geographic
what prevented them from doing more for the environment.
The first reason is because companies make false claims
about the environmental impacts of their products and second
that individual efforts cannot change things unless
governments and industries take action. PTI BS
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