Hello people. Have you wondered why some people are
more environmentally active than others? Or how significant ‘green’ labels should be (Fig. 1)?
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| Fig. 1: A green label (source: http://iusustain.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/biorecyclapostables/) |
To answer that questio, my post today will be on an article by Gilg:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328704001569
With data collected from regions around Devon, Gilg aimed to establish a relationship between green consumerism, defined as purchasing green products (Gilg et al., 2005), and common environmental actions (Fig. 2).
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Fig.
2: A logo advocating environmental action
(source: http://www.memphisflyer.com/NewsBlog/archives/2011/03/29/douglass-high-school-goes-green)
He discovered that environmental values stem from social
values. This includes altruism, open-mindedness, conservativeness, egoism and
one’s prioritisation of ecocentric and biospheric beliefs over materialism and social
status (Gilg et al., 2005).
However, change can only happen through
actions. Gilg further investigates if certain factors will influence environmental
actions.
His results indicated the following
trends:
1. Financially & socially stable, older and liberal people engaged more frequently whereas
2. Younger,
male, less educated, poorer and non-socialising members were less active
While this trends are generalised, they can provide some framework for policy
makers targeting the latter group (Gilg et al., 2005). Gilg also discovered that credentials and trustworthiness of a brand determines the sale of environmental products instead of price.
Environmentalists could thus be classified
as such:
Fig.
3 The 4 classifications of environmentalists (Gilg
et al., 2005)
The
article argues that green consumerism and environmental actions should be
merged as sustainability incorporates environmental values into both daily
purchases and lifestyle (Gilg et al., 2005). Personally, I agree that this holistic approach
would be very effective in reducing our carbon footprints as everything begins
in the mind-sets of people.
Ultimately,
the classification that the majority belongs to will determine the fate of the
environment. It is paramount to encourage occasional environmentalists to
increase commitment towards a greener lifestyle and convert
non-environmentalists into the mainstream class as well.
Literature Cited
Gilg, A., Barr,
S., & Ford, N, 2005. Green consumption or sustainable lifestyles? Futures,
481-504.
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