Ethical consumption in Brazil and Chile: institutional contexts and development trajectories

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThis paper presents the first findings of an ongoing multi-national research project between universities in Brazil, Chile and the UK funded by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The Choices project seeks to analyse contextual understandings and practices of ethical consumption in Chile and Brazil. In a further step, it explores how ethical consumption and public procurement can be associated and used to foster sustainable development. The paper presents the outcomes of the first stage of the project, an extensive literature review considering the developing trends towards "ethical", "sustainable", "responsible" and "conscious" consumption in both countries. Chile and Brazil are former developing countries, and although they both now have growing ethical consumption movements, we argue that these are shaped by the specificities of each country's political, economic and institutional trajectories. In one case, Chile, ethical consumption has arisen from market forces, with lead actors being companies, consultancies and citizen and consumer organizations. Brazil, on the other hand, provides also a very interesting case for studying how ethical consumption is embedded in another Latin American context: it has a larger state sector and a domestic market size to give the state, and thus the consecutive centre-left governments, great regulatory power, since it can control firms' access to this market. Both cases showed the increasing role of corporate social responsibility discourses and practices interfacing with concepts of ethical consumption. As a consequence, the paper identifies a risk of firstly, "greenwash" and "whitewash" by large companies and secondly, of having small producers struggling to market their products.

Fair Trade market creation and marketing in the Global South

“…The lack of attention to Southern Fair Trade markets is also problematic as wider research demonstrates that as incomes amongst growing middle classes increase, these consumers are often more likely to incorporate social and environmental factors into their purchasing (Ariztia et al, 2014;Barbosa and Veloso, 2014;Guarin and Knorringa, 2014;Kaus, 2013;Njuguna et al, 2014;Oliveria, 2014;Schäfer et al, 2011). In Brazil for example, the middle class is reported to constitute 100 m people (50% of the population) with an increasing discretionary spend (World Bank, 2013).…”

“…South Africa (SA) now reports a middle class of 10.4 m people (21.3% of the population) with a propensity for visible consumption (Kaus, 2013;Visagie, 2014). However, despite the phenomenon, Ariztia et al (2014) argue that the role, and therefore research around, the consumer in these nascent ethical markets is overemphasised compared to the role played by NGOs, networks, institutions (e.g. the state) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives by Multi-National Corporations (MNCs).…”

Seizing Ecolabelling and Sustainable Public Procurement Opportunities in the Southern Cone Region

“…Results in this report (Ariztía et al, 2012) show that 71% of the consumer´s behaviours are for the reason of saving or optimising their resources, and that 29% of the consumers are purchasing sustainable products because of responsible or sustainable consumption (Ariztía et al, 2012).…”

“…Thus, under these circumstances, by 2030 all SC countries will exhibit figures higher than US$ 10,000, with the exception of Paraguay 34 . This growth in SC middle income countries with growing economies is beginning to lead to a growing number of well-informed consumers that are now beginning to have the power to afford more ethical products which can increase the uptake of ecolabels and certified products (Ariztía et al, 2012).…”

“…The results show two completely different figures for the consideration of environmental issues in purchasing, which could be due to a difference in survey methods: in one survey, the price and quality factor were considered while in the other it was not. Concerning the consumer's perception of sustainable products, 67% of consumers consider sustainable products more expensive, and 52% of consumers would pay more for an environmentally friendly product (Ariztía et al, 2012).…”