US consumers unconvinced by corporate claims of their products’ greenness

US consumers are not persuaded by corporate environmental claims, and the vast majority say they would boycott a product if they found they had been misled on the issue.

Research by PR company Cone shows 80% of Americans do not believe companies consider their environmental impact, and three-quarters demand more information before making purchases.

The most common complaint was that companies do a poor job of making claims accessible, and 71% of those surveyed want more help to understand the environmental terms used on packaging and labelling. Cone’s research also shows that, generally, consumers cannot properly assess a product’s environmental performance from a company’s communications.

Consumers’ priorities on the type of environmental action they value may appear surprising. The emphasis is on end-of-life impacts – 42% of consumers say they are most influenced by messages on the environmental effect of disposing of a product, 33% say the biggest factor for them is the use of goods, and 25% regard the manufacture as the main aspect.

Jonathan Yohannan, Cone’s head of corporate responsibility, said: “The emphasis on disposal is not surprising considering it’s an area in which consumers feel they have a responsibility and control over what they do with products after use.

“However, what most consumers don’t know is that, for many product categories, disposal may represent the least significant aspect of a product’s impact. There’s an opportunity for companies to reframe the discussion and educate consumers about what they’re doing to reduce a product’s impacts across the supply chain.”

On a more positive note, the number of consumers interested in the environmental credentials of the companies from which they buy has remained steady, though the main reason why customers ignore products making green claims – after the additional cost – is that they simply do not believe them.