Talking point
Sustainability makes headlines and sparks debate. To find out which environmental issues are most important to you – and what you’re doing to address them – we asked you to share your thoughts in our latest sustainability survey…
When the Good Housekeeping sustainability survey launched in 2021, the country was still in the grip of coronavirus. Research at the time highlighted an increase in our collective environmental awareness as a result of the pandemic, which may have been due to appreciating nature when we could get outside, getting more used to ‘making do’ as global and local supply chains struggled to deliver products we were used to seeing in shops, or enjoying less congested roads and plane-free skies as a result of travel restrictions. Whatever the reasons, many experts expected this shift in our environmental consciousness to continue post-pandemic.
Since then, the cost-of-living crisis has put further pressure on finances, causing many of us – once again – to make changes to our spending patterns, the products we buy and the way we run our households. So has sustainability taken a back seat? The results of our most recent survey* show, overwhelmingly, that environmental issues are still very much on your agendas. In fact, nine out of 10 of you (88%) say you’re concerned about the environment, while just under two-thirds (63%) say you are very concerned, and this has been consistent since the end of the pandemic.
41% say environmental issues come up in conversation in their households at least once a week.
You’re currently taking action to live in more eco-friendly ways, with many of you adopting greener habits for the first time in the last 12 months. In a period of continuing financial uncertainty, it’s no surprise that almost twice as many of you say you’ve started to cut back, and buy only what you need, in the last year compared with those who said they had done this for the first time in the year leading up to our first survey – a move that eases the strain on the planet’s resources as well as our finances. Almost three times as many of you have started to buy more secondhand items in the last year than in the year preceding our 2021 survey, and you’re also thinking about where the products you buy new come from: 50% more of you than in 2021 told us you have started to look for food that’s been farmed in the UK or other products that have been made or sourced here in the last 12 months.
The number of you choosing plastic-free products, or products with less plastic packaging, for the first time in the last year has also increased since our very first sustainability survey. Over the next few pages, we’ll take a closer look at the environmental issues you’re most worried about and the actions you’re taking in key areas.
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