Accenture and WWF: Sustainable choices yet undercooked for consumers

A report from Accenture and environmental watchdog WWF in Singapore has showed that despite claims by many companies of investing heavily in sustainability, consumers are far from convinced.

According to the report, Sustainability in Singapore – Consumer and Business Opportunities, while companies are putting their eco-credentials at the forefront of their products, consumers do not trust their claims, find them confusing and want to verify the claims more easily.

Consumers also have a trust issue with many businesses, compounded by the difficulty in verifying the claims those companies make. A third of consumers (30%) said that competing claims have confused them, while a fifth of Singapore consumers (23%) claimed that they do not trust businesses’ sustainability claims at all. 

Over half of consumers (54%) view the government as a trusted information source for achieving sustainable lifestyles. More importantly, consumers are looking to the government to play a more active role in promoting sustainability, particularly in relation to recycling, with 67% of consumers stating that recycling is critical to sustainability efforts. A large majority of consumers are interested in the environmental impact of goods and services, and businesses and the government can do more to answer the call for sustainability, the report says.

A sticking point in terms of sustainability was the use of single-use products, such as single-use plastics in food packaging and single-use batteries. While the Singapore government is exploring different collection methods to recover clean single-use plastics and electronic waste, consumers are either unaware of these initiatives or are unsatisfied with these options and access.