Shailesh Dobhal: Buy me green

Our cities' dirty air and water and rising incomes present an opportunity for brands and businesses to pitch sustainability to consumers

The 21st session of the United Nations climate conference, commonly known as the Conference of the Parties (CoP 21), is underway in Paris to thrash out a new deal on global climate change. Whilst negotiators and policy-makers jostle with macro, country- and industry-specific emission targets, and many a marquee global firm struts its green credentials to impress a bevy of big stakeholders gathered at the French capital, recent research points to a huge consumer opportunity building up here, especially in "dirty" and poor countries like India.

A 20-country GlobeScan poll reported by BBC reveals that public support for stricter environment norms is dwindling across the rich world, including CoP 21 host France. The percentage of poll respondents viewing climate change as a "very serious" issue has slid to under half now from 63 per cent in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate meet (CoP 15) in 2009. Even China has witnessed a huge erosion here, from 37 per cent supporting the country setting ambitious targets at CoP 15 to 18 per cent now.

In stark comparison, India is the only big country besides Russia that has witnessed growing support among its citizens for its government to play a leadership role in setting ambitious emission targets, with almost a five percentage point increase in score this year compared to 2009 - 38 per cent and 33 per cent respectively.

And even though the rich-poor trend in support of tougher environmental measures may vary, informed citizenry everywhere is rubbing off on people as consumers. In a big, more than 60-country survey of over 30,000 consumers by market research firm Nielsen, over two-thirds, or 66 per cent, said they would pay more for products and services from a firm that was committed to a positive social and environmental impact. Importantly, this proportion has gone up from just half two years ago.

Amongst the factors influencing purchasing decisions "very heavily" or "heavily", the key ones were a company's reputation as environment-friendly (45 per cent), products made from fresh/natural or organic ingredients (57 per cent), the company is known for its commitment to social values (43 per cent) and the firm is committed to my community (41 per cent).

The millennials - the age cohort born between 1980 and the mid-2000s - the much sought-after future consumers, are also more inclined to pay a premium for sustainability now, with almost a three-fourth, or 72 per cent, score now compared to just 55 per cent in 2014, according to the same Nielsen survey.

And consumers also seem to be putting their money where the mouths are. Nielsen corroborated this through its retail audit data, and found that over two-thirds, or 65 per cent, of all sales in 2014 was accounted for by brands whose message conveyed a commitment to social and/or environmental values.

According to Carol Gstalder, senior vice-president, reputation and public relations solutions at Nielsen, as quoted on the firm's website, rising consumer awareness on sustainability "indicates an opportunity for brands that have already built a high level of trust with consumers to evaluate where best to introduce sustainable products into the market to drive growth". Equally, there is a danger that "large global consumer brands that ignore sustainability increase reputational and business risk. This may give competitors of all sizes the opportunity to build trust with the predominantly young, socially conscious consumers looking for products that align with their values", adds Gstalder. Is it any wonder that a street-savvy marketer like Hindustan Unilever is back at reviving its decade-old ayurvedic and natural products brand Ayush even as Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved has quietly become a Rs 2,000-crore brand hawking everything from toothpaste to noodles?