This is a very interesting survey released by DuPont this week about urban Chinese consumers increasingly favoring products they perceived offering environmental benefits. According to DuPont, China is now a ripe market for biobased product growth given their rising purchasing power and the government’s initiatives to reduce their carbon emissions and energy use.
In the DuPont China Green Living Survey: Consumer Awareness and Adoption of Biobased Products, DuPont found that a majority of Chinese consumers are likely to buy apparel, personal care, hygiene and household products made from biobased ingredients that offer environmental benefits. This is despite the fact that just 4 in 10 surveyed are very or somewhat familiar with what constitutes a green product.
DuPont said, 70% of the consumers surveyed expressed high confidence in the environmental claims of green products. In fact, compared in a similar survey done in North America, only 60% of Americans and 65% of Canadians expressed the same confidence.
The findings also noted that higher-income Chinese consumers were more familiar with and receptive to green products as well as biobased products. Most urban Chinese consumers reportedly agree on the factors that make a product “green” and accept that biobased products meet the criteria of “greenness.”
More than three quarters of the respondents said they would definitely or likely buy biobased products in a range of categories.
“The survey demonstrates a growing awareness and desire among urban Chinese consumers for green products that offer sustainability benefits,” said Jeremy Xu, vice president, Global Sales and Applications, DuPont Industrial Biosciences. “Greater adoption of biobased products in China could help the country reduce its energy intensity and carbon emissions and advance a new era of green manufacturing.”
As far as methodology is concern, the DuPont research is based on face-to-face street interviews of 1,000 Chinese consumers in nine mainland cities — Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Huangshi, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Yinchuan — as well as Hong Kong.
The survey was perfomed by Environics Research in collaboration with N-Dynamic Market Research.
[slideshare id=15513437&doc=dupontgreenlivingsurvey2012-121206015333-phpapp01]
