Question

Explain why consumers who claim they "highly value the environment" may not adopt

sustainable practices. Include structural factors, habit, information costs, availability,
affordability, and Importance of non-green criteria. How can third-party labels change the
above decisions?

Answer 1

Customers who highly value the environment may not adopt those practices for quite a few reasons of which the most likely two reasons are cost and convenience. At the end of the day it is easier to say you agree with something but to put your money where your mouth is and make sacrifices is much different then saying you will. When you tell someone that for an extra $200 dollars a month they could mostly reduce there carbon, or you won’t have to cook for 10 nights after a long days worth of work most people would pick the later. Convenience is another thing, where most people say they want to recycle but most people don’t go out of their way to properly recycle all types of products, most people just improperly throw it in their recycle bin (for example recycling most plastic bags requires you bringing them down to your local big box store). Third party labels if properly created would only help people to make small changes by giving people potentially small nudges in the right direction, for example you could have impact labels that show you how much co2 the product created (but with any label you need proper education on what it actually means)