CO2 Avoidance Is Not a Priority for Most Consumers

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in global awareness regarding the environmental impact of consumption. As the detrimental effects of excessive waste, pollution and resource depletion become increasingly evident, individuals and communities are beginning to reevaluate their consumption habits. With this growing consciousness, demand for more sustainable products and services has also increased, emphasizing the need for companies to offer eco-friendly products, source ethically and minimize the environmental footprint of their products and services.

When thinking about sustainable consumption, consumers have different priorities, ranging from environmentally friendly packaging to fairly traded and produced goods, organically grown crops or minimization of CO2 or other harmful emissions. Some of these concepts are easier to grasp than others, which is why it’s simpler for consumers to reduce their packaging weight or buy organic fruit than to think about their smartphone’s CO2 footprint.

According to a 2023 survey from Statista Consumer Insights, avoiding CO2 is relatively low on the list of sustainable consumption priorities for consumers in most surveyed countries. In the United States for example, CO2 ranks second to last on a list of 11 sustainability factors that consumers consider important. Just 18 percent of U.S. respondents said the reducing the CO2 footprint was a priority to them versus 46 percent who said that reducing packaging waste was important to them. Other items high on the list are animal welfare and fair trade, which is mirrored in other countries as well.

As our chart shows, American consumers place the lowest priority on CO2 reduction among the eight countries surveyed. At the other end of the scale, 41 percent of Brazilian respondents said that reducing their CO2 footprint was important to them.