The role of market research in combating climate change
10th April 2022
Environmental protection is no longer a minor concern, but something that businesses, governments and consumers are under pressure to address quickly and efficiently.
No more evidence is needed to acknowledge that climate change is happening, as we speak, and the extreme weather is costing livelihoods and lives. From wildfires and flood in Australia to storms in the US and severe droughts in Africa, we see it all around us.
A Forbes article published last year, says that climate change will cost companies $1.3 Trillion by 2026. This is down to the changes driven by the government, issues with supply chains, transportation and packaging. Both Sweden and the UK have pledged to stop the sale of new petrol and diesel cards by 2030, while Denmark allowed 10 more years to achieve it.
If we were to list the highest pollutants, we immediately think of oil companies, airlines, steelmakers and carmakers. However, a report released by the WWF and Greenpeace illustrates the financial sector as a major contributor to carbon emissions due to the carbon footprint in the business.
The scientific research shows a change is needed in the way we live and the way we work.
The urgency for change has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. The consumer research shows that people are genuinely concerned about the environment.
How can market research help?
Market research helps business understand how emerging consumers perceive environmental and social challenges and how they try to challenge them.
Work delivered by market researchers can accelerate the delivery of change by helping businesses assign priorities, strategise, recognise opportunities, and communicate effectively.
In 2020, market researchers in the UK created the Insight Climate Collective (ICC). Currently, the group includes more than 300 industry professionals and is calling on the industry to unite to help the environmental crisis. The initial priority of the collective has been to produce a foundational report, Net Zero In Sight, which breaks down the main industry emissions into key components, calculate and benchmark the current total (UK) industry emissions, provide clear guidance and support on how to reduce this and outline initiatives to deliver wider impact. This report can be found here: https://www.insightclimatecollective.org/
In their report researchers stated that “We believe that real change demands business as unusual. We cannot continue with our established ways of operating, agency-side, and client-side, without wrecking further irreversible damage on the environment.”
The report includes digital research covering more than 70,000 global social media posts on sustainability and plastic pollution, affinity mapping and other sources. It uncovered that businesses need guidance on creating and using plastic packaging to use a different approach to segmentation with specific messaging for each segment.
As Lilah Gaafar from the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, said
“Translating sustainable living into desirable, easy, everyday actions that resonate with people is challenging. It requires building on how people make choices, recasting evidence-based messaging and engaging strategically with what shapes behaviour and aspirations. With urgency and the changing ecosystem, market researchers can now better partner and engage with business and the government to understand and shift the growing urban population fuelled by youth who engage with their communities and exhibit their lifestyles through social media – to make sustainable living and lifestyle values, attitudes, and behaviours”.
Foreign Tongues specialise in market research translation. Contact us when you are looking for help with translating consumer insights to help you drive environmental change and adopt a sustainable business model.
Source: ESOMAR Global Market Research 2021
