Why eco-anxiety consumer sustainability research?
As awareness of the severity of the environmental crisis grows, more and more people are reporting feelings of anxiety around our planet’s future – particularly as extreme climate events, such as Australian wildfires, become increasingly common.
With eco-anxiety unlikely to go away, organisations of all kinds should pay attention to this phenomenon, particularly in terms of how it intersects with consumer behaviour.
Eco-worriers to eco-warriors
To bring insight to eco-anxiety consumer sustainability research, we surveyed 1,002 UK consumers on their attitudes, behaviours and beliefs about the environment, including how worried they were about the planet’s future. We found:
- 68% said that thinking about the environment’s future makes them nervous, while 56% felt helpless at the thought.
- Half of the sample were categorised as Frequent Worriers, including 18% who worried about the environment daily.
- Eco-anxiety appears to lead to sustainable behaviours, as seen in 64% of Frequent Worriers trying to buy less, compared to 43% of Semi-frequent and 34% of Infrequent Worriers.
