environment; it is broadly distributed across society in the ways people mitigate risk in everyday life. To counteract the risks posed by
everyday life, consumers establish habits such as avoiding unfiltered
tap water, wearing sunglasses and sunscreens to “block out” harmful
UV rays and fastening vehicle safety belts and using child car seats
“in case” an accident happens.
Other adaptations to risk only now emerging include practices
such as using sanitary wipes on grocery shopping carts, routinely
using air filters in living rooms and questioning the purity of water
in plastic bottles. These small measures provide entry points for consumer participation in sustainability, even when they may not be
familiar with that as a term or the global impact.
As you can see, consumers are beginning to
interpret questions of sustainability in more personalized terms as exposure to risks. And as their
perception of these risks grow to encompass more
and more causes, ranging from antibiotic-resistant
bacteria and pollution, to corruption and climate
change, their desire to do something about it
increases. Right now, our work on sustainability
shows most consumers tend to respond to risk in
one of five different ways, as characterized in the following table:
You can see now that most consumers are not yet willing to throw
in the towel. What we are interested in here is the number one
response, “Radical Engagement.” At the heart of this particular attitude is the call to action. There is a felt need by over a third of the
population to do something and, by implication, to do it now.
ADAPTIVE REACTIONS
Radical Engagement
“If people do not band together and employ radical 36%
means to overcome major problems, our future is bleak.”
Sustained Optimism
“If we rely on rational intelligence and science, we can 27%
overcome major problems and secure a hopeful future.”
Divine Faith
“If we leave things in God’s hands, everything will 20%
turn out as it should.”
Cynical Pessimism
“Save the planet? Who are we kidding? 9%
We can’t even take care of ourselves.”
Pragmatic Acceptance
“I don’t worry about the major problems facing 8%
the world because they are beyond my control.”
Table 1. Adaptive Reactions within the World of Sustainability
Source: Hartman Report on Sustainability, The Hartman Group, Inc. 2007.
Survey (n=1,489 consumers within the World of Sustainability).
sumers, 78 percent agreed that businesses and corporations should provide leadership in the area of environmental protection, and almost
three-quarters (72 percent) indicated
their purchase decisions have as
much, if not more impact on society
than their votes. In contrast, only
about a quarter ( 23 percent)
explained that whenever they did not
base purchase decisions on concerns
Figure 1.
for social or environmental responsibility it was because they didn’t think
they’d have much influence acting
alone. What’s clear is that consumers
by a wide margin are beginning to
incorporate issues of sustainability in
their purchase decisions and half of
them ( 53 percent) already feel their
decisions are an effective way to
express their values (Figure 1).
Businesses Taking Responsibility
Without necessarily realizing it, consumers are pushing manufacturers, retailers, distributors and marketers to “do the right thing.”
That is, rather than take on the responsibility themselves, individuals
are expecting organizations to do so. In our survey of 1,604 con-
Being a Good Citizen
When we asked our survey respondents to weigh various criteria for
deciding which company would earn
their dollars, the message was clear:
consumers expect the companies they do
business with to act socially and environmentally responsible in very particular
ways. For example, more consumers
think it’s important for businesses to
minimize waste and pollution ( 62
percent) than to provide good wages
and benefits ( 51 percent). And still
fewer think it’s important to maximize returns to investors ( 20 percent). What’s revealing about these
numbers is how the importance of
particular practices spreads to more
consumers as their impact hits closer
to home. A company’s waste and pol-
