Sustainable Development and the Consumer: Exploring the Role of Carbon Labelling in Retail Supply Chains

Abstract

This empirical article contributes to the sustainable development debate by examining consumer responses to carbon labels within a real world context. Given the limitations of methodologies that use self‐reported or intended measures of purchasing behaviour, we use the loyalty card data of the largest supermarket retailer in the UK to measure the impact of carbon labels on sales by different consumer segments. The data show that the trial of carbon labels on supermarket own brand products has had no discernible impact on shifting demand to lower carbon products. In order to explore possible reasons for lack of impact, nine focus groups were held using purposive sampling by retailer consumer segments to allow an exploration of awareness, understanding and use of carbon labels. The findings from the focus groups identified possible reasons for this lack of impact: lack of awareness and understanding of carbon labelling; constraining or facilitating social and cultural influences; and the heterogeneous nature of consumers. As a result, a number of implications for stakeholders are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Consumer Preferences for Different Designs of Carbon Footprint Labelling on Tomatoes in Germany—Does Design Matter?

“…This is indicated by the negative part-worth utility value of the original label (group 1). The message that is communicated by the label seems to be incomprehensible to the average consumer [13]. The two further labels tested in group 1 show positive part-worth utilities, although being relatively low.…”

“…Consumers are more likely to be influenced by the price or origin of the product at the point of sale. Research revealed that the interpretation of the carbon footprint label turned out to be too demanding for the average customer [1,2,13,14]. This is due to the difficulty of classifying abstract numbers of greenhouse gas emissions that are shown on the label.…”

“…The respondents were not provided with any definition of carbon footprint labelling before starting the CBCA task. Every participant was only shown one of the six design alternatives Several studies [1,[12][13][14] revealed that consumers do not adopt the black footprint-as initiated by the Carbon Trust in 2001 and later implemented in the retail sector by Tesco in 2008. For this reason, Tesco stopped its carbon footprint program in 2012 due to insufficient uptake.…”

Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in the Food Industry—Insights from Product Carbon and Water Footprints

“…Most food processors depend critically on water, either as an ingredient or as a requirement for the hygienic operation of their facilities, and water supplies have the potential to be impacted significantly by climate change in some regions. In addition, some downstream stakeholders and consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the food system [10][11][12][13] and this has the potential to influence future supply chain relationships and green market segments. These are among the reasons why climate adaptation strategies are needed in the food industry.…”

Enhancing Firm GHG Reporting: Using Index Numbers to Report Corporate Level Measures of Sustainability

“…Motives for reporting vary based on a variety of drivers including retailer and brand pull of manufacturers [3][4][5][6] shareholder interest in corporate social responsibility [7][8][9] desire to improve community relations [10], or to attract/retain high skilled employees that care about the environment [11]. Among the many papers on -why-companies report, Aras and Crowther [12] present the notion that reporting is more about convincing the investment community that the corporation doing the reporting is less risky, thereby reducing the cost of capital.…”