Gaining insights into wider concerns helps businesses to understand consumer priorities, and then create effective sustainability solutions. Let´s see what´s concerning the Latin Americans.
As we’ve seen from the Latam priorities for the UN’s SDG, what matters in our region can be very different from what matters globally. Asked to name their top three concerns, the global panel listed Climate Change (42%), Water Pollution (36%) and Plastic Waste (34%).
The figures for Latam are dominated by concerns about water quality and water management. Water shortages topped the poll in 2021, with water waste and water pollution also making the top five.
But as we see time and time again across our region, there are huge variations. Climate change for example scored 8% in Brasil but 16% in Mexico and Chile. Water shortages were a huge issue in Mexico (27%) and Chile (25%) but deemed less important in Brasil (9%) and Costa Rica (11%).
One issue gaining awareness is plastic waste with 2021 numbers for Costa Rica (10%), Colombia (9%) and Chile (9%) demonstrating that it’s an issue for significant numbers of consumers.
Whatever the issue and whatever the ambitions that consumers have, few can take action without knowledge. This is best highlighted in the area of recycling. Many consumers are positive about buying sustainable packaging, with Colombia, Chile and Brasil all over-indexing on the regional score of 36%.
But detailed questioning reveals that many have little knowledge about what can be recycled at home and find current labelling hard to understand. New forms of packaging that are biodegradable are adding to the confusion and many are often trying to recycle packaging when they are unsure if it should be recycled or not.
One area where consumers are united in all countries is that they know cardboard packaging is the least bad for the environment (selected by just 5% of regional respondents when they are asked to name the three types of packaging that are worst for the environment).
The criticism of those who talk a good game about sustainability is that they often don’t act in the same way. The truth is that many want to shop sustainably but often can’t. It could be for financial reasons or because the categories they buy have yet to incorporate sustainable messages or labelling that enables them to make a quick and easy choice.
There is a value-action gap. So, for example, 63% of people try to buy environmentally friendly packaging but only 25% manage do so. That leaves an unmet need for 38% of the Latam population.
When we look at the value-action gap for Latin America we find that more of our Latam sample are true to their goals than their global colleagues. The difference between “try to buy” and “I regularly buy” is just 2% among Eco Actives, compared to 12% for the global population.
