Indians most eco-friendly consumers: Survey

India toped the Consumer Greendex, compiled by National Geographic which studied 17,000 consumers in 17 countries.

The consumers were asked about energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability and knowledge of environmental issues.

The survey found the US the least eco-friendly in its consumption patterns. Consumers in emerging economies topped the Greendex ranking, while the six lowest scores were bagged by consumers in industrialised countries, according to the National Geographic.

The rankings are Indians, Brazilians, Chinese, Mexicans, Argentineans, Russians, Hungarians, South Koreans, Swedes, Spanish, Australian, German, Japanese, British, French, Canadians and Americans.

Compared to 2008, the largest increase in environmentally sustainable consumer behaviour came from the Indians, Russians and Americans.

In contrast, consumers in Germany, Spain, Sweden, France and South Korea have slipped slightly over the past year.

While the US has the least sustainable behaviour, it has made some progress in the past three years. The Americans' average Greendex score has increased by 1.3 points each year.

The National Geographic attributed much of the increase in the overall Greendex scores to more sustainable behaviour in the housing category in both 2009 and 2010, which was measured by the energy and resources consumed by people's homes.

Brazilians, Indians, Mexicans and Chinese topped the housing category, while Germans, French, Canadians, British, Japanese and Americans were the last six.

But the Americans, Hungarians, British and Australians also saw marked increases in their indices in this area, as consumers made moves to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Most people surveyed cited costs as the reason for the decrease in consumption but between 20 and 50 per cent pointed out environmental concerns.
In terms of personal choices like mode of transportation, there were mixed results with some countries indicating improvement and others deterioration.

Consumers in China, India and Argentina are the least likely to own at least one vehicle, but the use of cars is increasing there, the study said.

Since 2008, British, Canadian and Indian consumers have reduced their frequency of driving alone in a car -- perhaps caused by fuel costs -- while the percentage of Chinese consumers who drive alone in a car or truck has increased. The survey also found that since 2008, the number of consumers who prefer to repair rather than replace broken items has continued to increase in China, India and Russia.

There is also a growing trend to conserve fresh water, particularly among Indian and Russian consumers. Further, the trend of buying environmentally friendly products is most common in emerging economies, particularly among Chinese and Indian consumers. British and Japanese consumers are the least likely to report such behaviour.
The study also noted that Indians and Chinese are the only two countries in which a majority of consumers report avoiding excessively packaged goods.

Majorities of consumers in most countries frequently use their own bags when visiting stores, with the French taking a lead on this and more Canadians also adopting this behaviour.

While nearly all consumers have at least one television or one computer, more American households contain four or more televisions.

More than half of American, British and Canadian consumers, however, say that they frequently recycle their electronic items. People were asked in the survey by National Geographic what prevented them from doing more for the environment. The first reason is because companies make false claims about the environmental impacts of their products and second that individual efforts cannot change things unless governments and industries take action.