Getting a handle on green consumers

In its Helping Canadian Households Achieve Their Sustainability Goals white paper, Kruger Products tackles the questions: who is the green consumer in Canada? And what can the industry do to increase sustainable household purchasing in this country?

Written by University of Guelph professor Paulette Padanyi, the report reveals that Canadian consumers are well aware of the need to be green and the vast majority claim they take the environment into consideration daily and that they try to make sustainable household purchases. The report also found, however, that Canadians' commitment to green varies significantly. As a result, Canadian consumers can be segmented into three types of green purchasers: "always/often" (41%), “sometimes” (48%) and "rarely/never" (11%).

To boost Canadians’ purchasing of sustainable household products, the report, among other recommendations, calls for more collaboration among retailers and manufacturers to help educate consumers to reduce confusion.