Behavior Change
Will Sustainable Consumer Behaviors, Attitudes Persist Post-Pandemic?

Next month, GlobeScan and its growing set of brand partners will conduct their latest annual survey of roughly 30K people across 30 markets to explore consumer motivations, needs and expectations; as well as opportunities for influential organizations to support healthier and more sustainable living.

Over the past year, COVID-19 has disrupted lives all around the world. Due to lockdown, our daily habits have changed dramatically in a very short time — but it’s impossible to say whether new, healthier behavioral patterns will persist in the longer term.

For the annual Healthy & Sustainable Living global consumer research study, GlobeScan is once again joining forces with a range of committed partners — Akatu Institute, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, CVS Health, IKEA, Levi Strauss & Co, PepsiCo, Reckitt, Visa, and WWF International.

Approximately 30,000 people across 30 markets will be surveyed in May 2021 to explore consumer motivations, needs, and expectations as well as opportunities for influential organizations to support healthier and more sustainable living. Initial results will be released globally in September 2021.

“Engaging consumers and citizens worldwide on healthy and sustainable living is hugely important to help create the future we all want,” said GlobeScan CEO Chris Coulter. “I am delighted to have such a wonderful and growing set of partners for this third annual study, which is very inspiring. It is my hope that together we will make an even greater contribution to this critical topic.”

Building on the insights from the 2019 and 2020 studies, this year’s research will help identify opportunities to close the gap between people’s desire to live more sustainably and their actions to do so — and to what extent brands and civil society can help them on their journey.

As gleaned from the 2020 survey, consumers worldwide expressed a desire for brands to help enable healthier and more sustainable living by making the necessary changes more affordable, accessible and easy — through tastier, more convenient and affordable products and services that are better for both people and the environment, and designed to last. Not surprisingly, younger generations are far more interested in and willing to changing their behaviors and are more commonly subjected to social pressure to do so.

During the global, COVID-induced lockdown over the past year, our daily habits have changed dramatically. While Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Scholar at NYU Stern, reports an uptick in the purchases of sustainable fast-moving consumer goods, even during the pandemic, it’s impossible to say whether new, healthier behavioral patterns will persist in the longer term.

Jeffrey Hogue, Chief Sustainability Officer at Levi Strauss & Co said: “Post-pandemic, it is clear that consumer intent and behavior is beginning to accelerate toward more sustainable consumption patterns and increased acceptance of alternative business models like rental and recommerce. For Levi Strauss & Company and the industry at large, it will become increasingly important to follow and respond to the evolution in consumer trends and behaviors in this space.”

Approximately 30,000 people across 30 markets will be surveyed in May 2021 to explore consumer motivations, needs, and expectations on this front; as well as opportunities for influential organizations to continue to support healthier, more sustainable living. Initial results will be released globally in September 2021.