For 95 percent of consumers in Germany, sustainability as a purchase criterion for products and services is at least as important or even more important than it was a year ago. This was the finding of the Global Sustainability Study 2022 by the global strategy consultancy Simon Kucher & Partners.
65 percent of those surveyed gave “a sense of responsibility” as the reason, while almost half, at 49 percent each, named “fear of environmental damage” and “the feeling of doing a good deed after the purchase”.
inhibition threshold price
For 30 percent of consumers, the biggest barrier to choosing sustainable products is a price that is too high. A quarter of those surveyed gave greenwashing as the reason, which means they do not believe that the so-called sustainable alternatives are really sustainable. A fifth (19 percent) hesitate to buy such products because they cannot assess whether a product is really sustainable.
“Communication, transparency, clear references to seals or the like – companies urgently need to do more here in order to be able to better educate their customers about the topic of sustainability,” advises Andreas von der Gathen, Co-CEO of Simon-Kucher, in a statement.
Sustainability is not a whim
The strategy consultancy emphasizes that the increasing awareness of sustainability among consumers in Germany is not a short-term whim and points to the trend of the past five years: almost a third of those surveyed stated that their shopping behavior had changed in this way during this period that they are increasingly turning to environmentally friendly products. 40 percent have even “significantly” adjusted their behavior in this direction, and 16 percent stated that they have changed their entire way of life to be more sustainable.
“The trend towards sustainable consumption is clearly increasing and shows that this is not a fad. Consumers increasingly see the sustainability aspect of products and services as a must-have; they expect it. Companies have to live up to this claim, otherwise they run the risk of losing customers,” adds von der Gathen.
Willingness to pay more for sustainable products
Environmental awareness and sustainability play a role for consumers, especially in the areas of heating, food and household goods, electricity and local public transport (buses, trains, trams, etc.).
The highest willingness to pay for sustainable products and services is in the consumer goods industry (34 percent) and in house/residential construction (33 percent): here consumers would accept a price increase of 17 percent. In the field of travel, tourism and leisure, only 28 percent are willing to do so, with the “pain limit” being a 20 percent increase.
“Consumers increasingly take sustainability for granted and not as a justification for companies to charge higher prices. In order to remain competitive, companies must therefore rethink now at the latest,” comments von der Gathen.
The representative “Global Sustainability Study 2022” was conducted between July and August 2022 by Simon-Kucher & Partners in cooperation with the independent market research institute Dynata. Over 11,000 consumers in 19 countries worldwide – 1,001 of them in Germany – were asked about their shopping behavior and their willingness to pay for sustainability, among other things.