Consumer Awareness Survey on Sustainable Consumption – 2018: Sri Lanka

In line with the proposed programme for “Promoting SCP in Sri Lanka through facilitating accessibility to information” under the One Planet Network , a consumer survey was designed and the objectives of the survey are twofold: first, to identify the awareness and education level of Sri Lankan consumers on sustainability issues, their ability and willingness to use environmental information in decision making. Second, to identify the sustainability concerns of Sri Lankan consumers towards food products (in terms of health, safety, quality and etc.). Recognizing the role of consumers in realizing sustainability, there is clearly a growing concern on sustainable consumption all over the world, and it stresses the importance of involvement of individuals both in the private and public sphere to improve the commitment for sustainability. Sustainable consumption practices first became popular particularly in developed countries during the last few decades and, now gradually becoming embedded among communities in developing countries too. Over the last two decades, a number of initiatives have been introduced in Sri Lanka predominantly to educate business organizations on sustainability and, as a result, there is a significant improvement in managing business operations now to align with clean production practices. However, the consumer segment is still an overlooked aspect in Sri Lanka as far as its active participation in promoting sustainable consumption practices are concerned. Although a couple of amendments to laws pertaining to environment protection have been implemented recently, together with some awareness programmes on the role of consumers in realizing sustainability, there is still a long way to go if the commitment of the Sri Lankan consumer needs to be improved on that. However, there is a dearth of studies in the Sri Lankan context on the sustainability awareness among the consumers, which consequently disarrange any new initiatives or programmes aiming at educating consumers. In order to design any further awareness programmes and/or activities, the prevailing Sri Lankan context should be explored and studied carefully. This survey intended to address the above information gap. The focus of the survey was mainly on assessing the consumer attitudes towards environment protection, willingness to consider sustainability concerns at the purchase and usage stages of consumption. Representing five (05) main districts of Sri Lanka, a sample of four hundred and twenty three (423) individuals was interviewed. Further, a set of nine (09) enumerators who were initially trained on the data collection procedures were deployed in collecting data for the survey, and a structured questionnaire was administered during the period of 18th January 2018 and 28th January 2018 • The term ‘green’/ ‘sustainable’/ ‘environmentally friendly’ product is known by the majority (selected 60% of people) of Sri Lankans, whereas the term ‘green’/ ‘sustainable’ consumption is familiar to a relatively small number of people (only 40% of people). • In general, Sri Lankan consumers possess favourable opinions towards environment protection, and they acknowledge the role of individuals in protecting the environment. • Particularly, 99% of people realizes that consumption creates impacts on environment and for 98% of people, protecting the environment is personally important. • Sri Lankans comprehend that purchasing responsibly is an individual responsibility (91% of people) and selecting ‘green’/ ‘environmentally friendly’ products instead of normal products is a responsibility of consumers also (79% of people). • However, they (majourity) do not agree (52% of people) with the opinion that buying ‘green’/ ‘sustainable’ products would fulfil the individual responsibility to protect environment. • They also possess mixed feelings whether individual environmental responsibility is over by purchasing green products (52%) or not (48%). • Notably, 94% of people asserts that consumers are responsible for careful use and disposal of products. • According to the opinion of the people, Sri Lankans now tend to buy more green products (Mean value 2.87) than before. • Sri Lankans recognize minimize resource wastage (94%) and using energy efficient products (90.2%) as main constituents of ‘green consumption’. • Relatively a significant number (48% of people) knows little about the environmental impacts of the products that they buy and consume, and 35% of people know about the significantly important impacts of the product only. • ‘Price of the product’ is the main determinant of the purchase decision (Mean value 3.78) of the Sri Lankan consumers and that is followed by ‘product quality’ (Mean value 3.56). • When compared across product categories, Sri Lankan consumers consider the environmental impacts of electronic products (Mean value 3.05) and food products (Mean value 2.87) as important. • Media news/programs (Mean 3.32) and family members (3.20) serve as the most influential environmental information providers. However, friends (3.03) and social media (3.02) as information sources are also emerging in Sri Lanka. •etc