Eco-Labeled Seafood: Determinants for (Blue) Green Consumption

Abstract

Eco-certification has become an increasingly popular market-based tool in the endeavor to reduce negative environmental impacts from fisheries and aquaculture. In this study, we aimed at investigating which psychological consumer characteristics influence demand for eco-labeled seafood by correlating consumers' stated purchasing of eco-labeled seafood to nine variables: environmental knowledge regarding seafood production, familiarity with eco-labels, subjective knowledge, pro-environmental self-identification, sense of personal responsibility, concern for negative environmental impacts from seafood production, perceived consumer effectiveness, gender and education. Questionnaires were distributed to consumers in Stockholm, Sweden, and the data were tested with multiple regression analysis using linear modeling and model averaging (n = 371). Two variables were the best predictors of stated purchasing of eco-labeled seafood: (i) recognition and understanding of eco-labels for seafood (Marine Stewardship Council, Fish for Life, Aquaculture Stewardship Council and KRAV); and (ii) concern for negative environmental impacts associated with seafood production. Meanwhile, consumer environmental knowledge was a weaker predictor. Results from this study suggest that strengthening the emotional component of consumer decision-making and improving the level of consumer familiarity with seafood eco-labels could stimulate more pro-environmental seafood consumption.

Learning Environment: Gender Profile of Students' Pro-Environmental Behavior (PEB) based on Green Consumerism

“…The solution that can be offered is a lot to be able to intervene to students so that their PEB score becomes higher (Truelove & Gillis, 2018). The older the student should also be more aware of how important PEB is for the sustainability of the future environment (Jonell, Crona, Brown, Rönnbäck, & Troell, 2016;Krettenauer, 2017;Yu et al, 2017).…”

Impact of Consumer Environmental Responsibility on Green Consumption Behavior in China: The Role of Environmental Concern and Price Sensitivity

“…However, consumers may not carry out this complex and elaborate process of collecting information every time and may not make rigorous logical purchases in reality. The behaviorist point of view is that consumers own a set of strategic skills and knowledge that will estimate the effort required to make a green purchasing decision and then match a suitable strategy for the level of effort [42,45]. However, behaviorism might be lacking in explanatory power in the context of green purchasing with higher involvement of consumers.…”

Alternative pathways to sustainable seafood

“…However, this economic incentive has not consistently materialized. Instead, consumers often express a preference for eco‐friendly seafood (Jaffry, Pickering, Ghulam, Whitmarsh, & Wattage, ; Wessell, Johnston, & Donath, ), but tend to be reluctant to pay more when they go shopping (Jonell, Crona, Brown, Rönnbäck, & Troell, ) or prefer locally branded products (McClenachan, Dissanayake, & Chen, ). Furthermore, price premiums that have been realized have not generally been distributed to fishers (Bellchambers, Phillips, & Pérez‐Ramírez, ; Pérez‐Ramírez, Castrejón, Gutiérrez, & Defeo, ).…”